Despite facing tremendous greenback-strength headwinds today, gold and silver are hanging on to their gains in mid-afternoon trading.

Markets seemed to take a breather today. The Dow was up 0.25% on anticipation of stimulus moves by the European Central Bank, and on news that United Health Care and Netflix reported better-than-expected earnings in Q4.

We have spoken about volatility for the last few weeks. Indeed, there is plenty of volatility and not of the type brought on by world events, or economic events, nor even tectonic shifts – as in a major innovation or reaction to one.