The hawks’ argument goes something like this: Raise rates now and slow the economy so the Fed does not have to raise rates more vigorously later and possibly cause a recession. Let’s say for a minute that rates right now are at 0.50%.

Despite reasonably strong upward movement via regular trading, gold took it on the chin because of a surging U.S. dollar. Silver met the same fate but without the backing of regular trading efforts. Gold was off around 0.55%; silver was off 1.00%

Although the biggest story of the day was rising oil prices, let’s talk about gold first.