Of course gold is trading choppy and sideways as the yellow precious metal seeks new direction.

That direction is particularly hard to come by since extracurricular talk by various Fed members has been contradictory.

Gold and silver began digesting the meaning of the 288,000 jobs added in the U.S. in June. As they say in Italy, the number is giving them agita. That means acid reflux in both a literal and figurative sense. So, among other things, we've seen a nearly $10 swing between highs, lows, and back again (only down 60 cents in afternoon trading in New York).

Some things can be anticipated fundamentally.

When ADP, a private employment data organization, reported that the U.S. created 281,000 new jobs, we could be certain that the official Department of Labor figures would be in the same neighborhood.

While there are a variety of technical factors at work in the recent movement of gold, its inability to break out beyond the year's limits is indicative of an uncertainty about inflation.

One can simplistically pin this on fears about what the Fed might or might not do concerning interest rates and about the further wind-down of QE3. Let's start with the latter first.

There is no big news to report that is driving gold and silver today.

Gold tested resistance again, which may have tipped technical movements into the fundamental side of influences, that is, a steady pressure.

A few modest concrete events this week will serve to keep a lid on gold, especially, as the weekend approaches.

The least surprising aspect about today's jump in gold prices is not the fact that investors leapt at the bargain price presented at approximately 1311. That would be relatively predictable, especially given what we've been saying about technical support.

We end the week in gold within a couple of dollars of where we began. It was a defensive week for gold bulls and the battle ended up a draw as there was plenty of probing to see where support and resistance would establish themselves.

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Wishing you as always, good trading,

Yesterday we laid out a number of events or releases of news that we thought could move gold. Well, lo and behold, we got one today. We said yesterday, "A good or bad word from a maverick member of the Fed..." might be one of those forces.

The centipede has a hundred feet, give or take. When shoes start dropping, well, everything goes crazy in centipede land.

Fundamental players in gold trading are waiting for any one of dozens of shoes to drop, although right now, all footwear seems to be remaining firmly in place.