Apparently, the initial talks in Washington have the markets believing that Congress and the Senate will come to an arrangement on the fiscal cliff because that sent risk assets higher today.  Silver popped $0.65 and closed over the important $33 level while world equities were up strong from Japan to the U.S.  Gold went along for the ride as options expiration shenanigans were behind us all and the markets could be freed from the market makers inflicting pain on the contract holders.

Gold popped on the COMEX open and was held just below the resistance at $1730 for most of the morning until just before the European close where it pushed through on the back of the Euro breaking above $1.28, and hit a high of $1736 before being bled back down to $1731 on the Globex close.  Gold now needs a daily close on the COMEX above $1738 to confirm any kind of structural positive momentum.  But, if the Fed has now begun its MBS buying program under QEIII, which last week’s data suggests, then we’ve likely seen all of the negativity we’re going to see through the end of the year, as the holiday shopping season is now officially upon us and expectations have to be managed upwards to reassure people that there truly is a Santa Claus and he lives at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, along with some small percentage of Germany’s gold.