"They couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn”

Legend has it that a Civil War Union Captain uttered the words “They couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn” only to be struck down by a confederate bullet. Unfortunately for him, he was dealing with enemy combatants. Had he been speaking about economist and analysts who were tasked with predicting 2012’s 4^th quarter GDP it might have been a different story…Ok, well he’d still be dead because it’s 150 years after the war but you get my point. Yesterday’s wiff took many by surprise and looked very supportive of the metals heading into the conclusion of the first FOMC meeting of the year. However, the Federal Reserve decided to keep the printing presses going (status quo) and while they say there is an end, under certain criteria, it doesn’t look like that criteria will be met any time soon. With QE infinity already baked into the market it was only natural for some profit taking to occur. As you can see, the precious complex is well in negative territory to start the day. Weekly jobless claims rose to 38,000 last week, not surprising since the few weeks following the Holiday’s tend to be volatile for that data. The more important reading, government jobs data, will be released tomorrow. Have a great day!