Gold

Before we start, a word about D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The western allies who landed on the beaches of Normandy helped to save the world from the worst modern menace it has known. Let's remember their courage and sacrifices and remind ourselves we live in a world of their making and not in some Nazi nightmare.

Today's bounce caught many gold bulls off guard. But, when you ponder that the European Central Bank took bolder-than-usual moves - very unexpected given their track record of under-delivering on big promises - traders could only react as quickly as possible.

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No wonder that gold is looking for cues.

There was a landslide of economic data released today in the U.S. and the picture of the economy is blurrier, not clearer, from the snapshot.

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Gold saw a bit of recovery today. about half of it from dollar weakness, half from regular trading. For the moment the bleeding is stanched.

This week is going to see some key economic data released and the waiting game has begun.

If it wasn't pathetic and hadn't affected tens of millions of people, the Institute Of Supply Management's bungling of their own statistics today would be funny.

But their mistake revealed a lot of information to gold traders.

News is a funny beast. We're never sure if events are guiding the news or the news is guiding events. Early in the month, the world was fretting about Ukraine and Russia.

Despite the horrendous negative economic growth in the first quarter in the United States, equities kept up their purring as if they were a 16-cylinder engine tuned to perfection.

When the dollar strengthens, there is little hope for gold to likewise do so.

Dollar strengthening means generally that the U.S. economy is strengthening. That bolsters the buck.

There was far too much good news in the U.S. today for gold.

There was too much renewed risk appetite in the equities markets.

There is a rumor China wants to run the gold markets.

Europe suddenly looks like a political basket case. Will the center hold?

Ukraine, despite the central government's robust attack on separatists, has not provoked Russian ire.

The week concludes very much as it began. Gold is trading sideways while the dollar strengthens and takes out what little air there is in the tires of the precious metals.

The S&P is hovering around its previous intraday highs of 1900. In fact, all major stock indices except for the FTSE were up in Asia, Europe and the U.S. NASDAQ is looking particularly strong.