The S&Ps opened up a touch and slowly slipped all day to eventually go out on the lows with a loss of just a hair.
The dollar firmed along with oil, with the DXY ending up a third of a percent. The dol/yen was particularly strong and rose half a percent. Is Bessent's intervention phone ringing yet?
Yields also rose, with the entire curve basically adding 6 bps.
BTC slipped a touch and continues to be napping, although its inverted H&S is still possible.
Commodities were mostly firmer along with crude, which popped 5 percent after... shocker! there was no deal to open the straits and Iran fired on a couple ships.
Gold traded up to as high as $4303 overnight and then backed off to as low as $4222 in the US before firming again in the afternoon to go out back up around $4247 to end virtually flat.
Silver similarly traded up to a new high for the week and to as high as almost 63 before weakening to a low of just under $61 in the US before then firming back up to around $61.50 for the close for a loss of a third of a percent.
The GDX opened down near yesterday's lows and then firmed to go out back up near yesterday's highs with a gain of just a touch.
Tonight we'll find out how much gold the PBOC bought last month. As always, the surprise would be if the PBOC didn't buy any.
That then leaves tomorrow's jobs data as the big event. A downside surprise would likely make the odds of a rate hike in September virtually zero, which would mean that the market would likely price in more inflation by weakening the dollar, as well as pushing up yields in the long end and steepening the curve as the short end moves lower. All of that in theory would be bullish for precious metals.
If on the other hand, we get a stronger number then perhaps that will be the excuse for the metals and GDX to back off some more and eventually test the 5 dma, which is typical in a strong uptrend.
My gold model remained at neutral.
Positions: Short QQQ, SPY, MDY, and IWM. Long DBA, STRC and IBIT.
Metals: I bought GDXU and AGQ on the opening dip this morning and added SLV 58 calls for tomorrow for 8.5 cents. I will add to my longs if we get a dip to the 5 dma tomorow.