The half- and quart-point losses on the Dow and S&P 500 look positively like a day at the beach compared to the rest of the world’s exchanges. And the modest rise on the NASDAQ seems like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Fourth of July rolled into one.

Oil continued to careen lower today, both WTI crude and Brent free falling around 4.25%. (Natural gas tumbled even more – 4.65%.) Oil-dependent nations that have been planning poorly are reeling, Venezuela and Russia among them.

Fundamentally speaking, today’s U.S. job numbers and income-increase numbers are an ominous sign for gold prices. The solid, 321K monthly hiring figures for November was not only significant in quantity but in quality.