The Grateful Dead once sang that, "When life looks like Easy Street, there is danger at your door." Today's trading action in gold certainly proved their point.

Overcoming the serious drag presented by a rising dollar, gold and silver rose today on the rising tensions in the eastern part of Ukraine. Nobody, especially the equities markets, wants this conflict to go any farther.

As the week came to a close, gold maintained an equilibrium today, bulls unable to derive much energy from the Fed minutes released Thursday, bears unable to unseat gold as a minor hedge play.