The good news is that finally Russia seems to have been brought to bay regarding Ukraine and appears willing to "go international" on solving the problems, which really, when all is said and done, don't seem all that insurmountable. It would be better for Ukraine, Russians living in Ukraine, and Russians in Russia if a genuine effort to deal with the West were made.  

Inverted Hammer & Hammer

Some days you hop on those bikes in the gym, and you pedal and pedal and you end up asking yourself: "Why am I doing this? Shouldn't I be going somewhere?

Today was just that sort of day in gold. One would have thought that bargain hunters and short covering players would have made a stronger stand, but they didn't. Perhaps everyone is waiting for the proper entry point.  

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.

Yet, to our way of thinking there is something seriously amiss with the analysis that says the U.S. economy is picking up so strongly it may warrant a rate increase.

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. However, Tsar Putin seems to keep pushing and pushing.

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.

Bull Patterns

Engulfing Bullish = Bullish Reversal - 

With a much smaller assist from the dollar decline today - but with one nevertheless - gold and silver advanced. Both metals are off their highs but holding a tidy gain from follow-through buying.

We can again thank the weakening dollar for the small rise in gold today. without that softness, gold bulls would be about even for the day. As it is, at the close in New York, gold is up $4.60, $.20 of which is from the down dollar.

Despite an assist from a weaker dollar, gold prices slipped about $5 today, taking the leading precious metal below 1300.