We are in the midst of a strange week in the world of economic news and other broad impulses in markets. Chief in our mind is the concern over where equities earnings are headed. Second, we have to ask where oil is headed.

The fundamental puzzler for gold this week is whether the drastic drop in jobs creation is the start of a pattern or an anomaly.

Many markets, gold and silver among them, sought direction before the holiday weekend, but found little ahead of the anticipated jobs report due out from the U.S. Labor Department tomorrow.