Today will always be known as the day of the “Swiss Surprise.” The Swiss tore the cap off their franc’s valuation in a stunning move that has had traders all around the world scrambling to dump short positions they held in the currency. Some of them fled to gold, fueling a surge there of 2.4%.

Gold found some upside impetus early in the day before falling. It bounced up to 1245 before settling down for a small loss during afternoon trading. Silver prices were hit by a round of profit-taking only a day after gold experienced the same impulse. The gray metal is off over 1%.

Gold rode all the way up to $1245 today before profit taking began with a vengeance, driving it modestly down for the day. The dollar, continuing its mad rise, is accounting for all the negativity in the gold price.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell below $46 per barrel today and it scared the pants off equities traders, who now see the plummeting price as a barrier to profits in the sector. Energy stocks account for about 13% of the old-line stock exchanges.

Although in late afternoon gold is off its highs for the day, the yellow precious metal is up nearly 1%. Today, there was no headwind from the dollar; in fact, a lower dollar helped gold gain and keep traction.

The precious metals digested the news gleaned from the FOMC’s minutes and, for most of the morning and into early afternoon, the metals took heart.

Imagine a game of tug of war but with four opposing forces, four ropes and an indecisive referee. That sums up what we experienced today.

The precipitous drop in crude is being factored into the equities markets this afternoon, as we can see after prices in New York bounced off the day’s low. This has profound implications for the bull market we’ve experienced recently. Once the jitters are gone over oil, a more bullish attitude will prevail – for a while, anyway.

Many financial pundits are saying that the nearly catastrophic decline in crude prices is at the heart of today’s steep drop in stocks. That steep drop is, in turn, responsible for a movement into gold, so goes the argument.

The holidays are slouching toward an end and the dollar almighty is ruling the road. The euro was down about 1% against the U.S. currency and, accordingly, oil fell – but even more than that, around 1.3%.

Buyers looking for a bargain helped gold achieve a small gain today, but they were smacked upside the head by the continuing robustness of the dollar.