The dramatic sell-off in equities across the globe - except for Shanghai, which eked out a quarter-point gain - sent gold up today, covering yesterday's losses.

Of course, the glib answer is, "It's the end of the 3rd quarter." But we're thinking it's time for a reassessment across the board as to where the four major economic powerhouses are headed as we enter Q4 of 2014.

Adding to uncertainty in international affairs is the situation in Hong Kong. Hong Kong occupies an unusual position in the world financial community, and in the geopolitics between communist China, the rest of Asia and the West.

With a mighty assist - a shove - from dollar strength, gold resumed its downward trend again today. The dollar was up against the euro, GB pound and the yen.

The greenback's strength was instigated by a number of data reports today that showed great vigor in the U.S. economy.

U.S. GDP was revised upward from a very vigorous 4.2% even higher to 4.6% for the second quarter.

Battling the headwinds of a stronger dollar on the day, gold found some enthusiasts, even if they were feeding on the bottom a bit. At closing, this afternoon, gold is up about $5.00.

Fundamentally, today's driving force in precious metals has been the rise of the dollar, which rocketed back from a few days of downward slippage.

Looking at a number of factors, this should not be surprising.

Some days, a number of small items conspire to move prices of gold and silver one way or another. naturally, since we are now in a short trade, we want to see gold move down. It did not deign to convenience us with that kind of action today. A bundle of smallish reasons led it in the other direction.

And of course, the gyrations of the dollar.... despite a weaker dollar, the price of gold fell a little over a dollar. But the session essentially gave us a push and pull between the bear and bull.

The dollar was up against the euro, yen and British pound today, the tiger uncaged continuing its late-summer rampage.

That sent just about everything but equities down, although the NASDAQ was off a bit today.

After yesterday's dramatic price retreat yesterday and a plunge to 1216 in intraday trading today, gold has recovered and is posting a very modest gain today in the late afternoon.

Short covering, bargain hunting and opportunism are at work. Many traders sensed gold had fallen too far, too fast. But the fundamentals are in place for further declines once we get past this small rise.