The S&Ps opened down about a percent after South Korea was clipped for 10% overnight. Following a bounce, we collapsed back to the lows and basically chopped sideways for the rest of the day to go out down over a percent. The SOX lost 8 percent and the QQQ over 3 percent.

The dollar was mostly firmer once again, with the DXY picking up a touch. Dol/yen once again notably hovered just below its 2024 high and is likely waiting to see if the BOJ is going to hammer it or not. Yields were lower, but this time it was mostly in the short-end, which steepened the curve a little for a change.

BTC fell over 3 percent, and MSTR dumped 5 percent to a new 52-week low. These charts look like a crime scene.

Commodities were mostly lower, although crude somehow rose a touch. Platinum broke to a new low below its early June low but then rebounded to end down only a percent. Time will tell if that low will hold or not. Copper lost 4 percent.

Gold tumbled 2 percent to $4110, or just about 100 bucks from its early June nadir. Silver was clubbed for 5 percent and tested its March low and hardly bounced.

The GDX gapped down again, and after a bounce, it rolled over and sank back to the open to end near its lows with a loss of almost 5 percent. While that close on the lows probably left bulls disheartened, it produced an inverted hanging man, which can often be a sign of a reversal. Tomorrow's action would need to confirm.

Based on the signals from my model and the divergences we are now getting relative to the early June lows between gold, silver, and GDX, I still think we are close to some sort of rally beginning. Whether than rally is a rally off a lasting bottom or just another bear market rally like the one off the March low remains to be seen. But being aggressively short here (and this is coming from someone who has been short mostly since the Jan high) isn't a good risk/reward in my view.

My gold model remained on a Tier 3 BUY for a third straight session.

Positions: My equity longs and shorts and were unchanged.

Metals: Long GLD, GDXU, and AGQ, and I doubled them today. Long GLD 386 calls for tomorrow that I added today for 31 cents and long SLV 60 calls for Friday for 12 cents. I punted the rest of my calls on the open to take the losses as they were likely too far away after today's beating.