Mayday is a bank and trading holiday in Europe. That thinned out the trade volume for gold and other precious metals, as well as affecting other markets.

Traders in different markets seem to be singing from very different hymnbooks today.

Gold was smacked around by analysts’ interpretation that the Fed statement was quite hawkish to which we reply: “Huh?”

The statement issued after the FOMC meeting today reflected pretty much conditions in the U.S. economy as seen by a large cross section of economists, investors and traders.

The slowdown in the first quarter was due to transitory influences.