Gold rose today on a fairly strong movement toward haven demand due to the Greek debt crisis. That problem also drove down equities on all major exchanges across the world. However, as we head into the afternoon, gold (and silver) are off their earlier highs.

We might as well begin with Greece and try to explain the unexplainable.

The outlook for a positive resolution of the Greek debt fiasco grows gloomier and gloomier. This spooked U.S. and European equities, the DJIA falling hardest with a loss of almost 0.9%. Normally, this would signal a cakewalk for gold.

Try as regular traders might today, they couldn’t overcome the resurgent dollar. And, in spite of bellicose words from the IMF, the EU and Greece, equities worldwide managed to pick up some gains. Gold gained nothing on the safe-haven play from the unsettled Greek debt problem today, however.

A Greek deal is looking more and more unlikely. The Greeks simply do not want to accept austerity as defined by core players in the monetary union, France and Germany. Even the very next meeting is in doubt because of Greek recalcitrance.

A Greek deal is looking more and more unlikely. The Greeks simply do not want to accept austerity as defined by core players in the monetary union, France and Germany. Even the very next meeting is in doubt because of Greek recalcitrance.

Purportedly, Diogenes, a 4th century Greek philosopher of the Cynic school, went about Athens in the daytime with a lighted lamp looking for an honest man. What better place today to start than modern Greece, which apparently cannot find its “honest man” in debt negotiations with the rest of Europe, the IMF and other creditor entities?

Today we focus on the euro. We will look at long and short term studies

A weaker dollar and reluctant buyers in the gold market faced off against one another today. The result is a narrowly higher price in gold.

Gold traders tend to enter a market (from either side) based on events.

The U.S. economy created 280,000 jobs in May, a stellar outcome after a weak late winter and early spring. Earlier employment data were also revised upward. Possibly more important and a harbinger of things to come, average hourly earnings rose by an extremely healthy 0.3 percent.

Traders, weighing up what tomorrow’s jobs report will bring in the U.S., were busy today squaring their positions. When in doubt, hedge. And there is plenty of doubt out there.