Gold

Many financial pundits are saying that the nearly catastrophic decline in crude prices is at the heart of today’s steep drop in stocks. That steep drop is, in turn, responsible for a movement into gold, so goes the argument.

The holidays are slouching toward an end and the dollar almighty is ruling the road. The euro was down about 1% against the U.S. currency and, accordingly, oil fell – but even more than that, around 1.3%.

Buyers looking for a bargain helped gold achieve a small gain today, but they were smacked upside the head by the continuing robustness of the dollar.

Today, oil took another licking and gold came along for the ride. The dollar was up strongly once more, except against the British pound. Contradicting the usual expectations, U.S. equities were down, although that might be expected as those who are ready to book their losses do so before the bell tolls on 2014.

You Say Stop And I Say Go Go Go

So, sang the Beatles back in the day. They had a point about contradictory flows of feeling and thought, just as we have now in the precious metals markets.

End-of-year fear came scuttling out of the woodwork today, driving equities down and gold up. Even crude oil found something under its feet other than quicksand today.

Equities were up a small amount today amid cautious holiday trading, but the U.S. dollar continued its climb to supremacy, helping push gold lower. But the dollar doesn’t tell the whole story today for gold.

The chief outside market influence, crude oil, was down severely again, by around 2%. Gold was dragged down on that ride.