“We who are born into this age of freedom and independence and the self must undergo this loneliness.  It is the price we pay for these times of ours.”

–    Natsume Sôseki

“The issue isn't just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.”

–   Jim Hightower

The headline ‘Jobs Number' came in better than expected at an adjusted +252,000.

And the Unemployment Rate fell more than expected to 5.6%.

Yay!  We win again!

Why weren't stocks rallying with these glorious numbers?

Perhaps the market noticed that average wages fell much more than expected, and the Labor Participation Rate continues to decline.

What does that mean?

Perhaps it means, like the accounting numbers of so many IPOs being puked out by Wall Street, that the results are misrepresentations of reality, or in other words that a Holden Caulfield might have used, The Recovery™ is still a phony.

And here's a thought.  What is this type of narrow recovery for the wealthiest few is something that some might find to be highly desirable, even profitable? 

Gold has marched up tightly into overhead resistance as can be seen from the chart below.  As is often the custom with a Non-Farm Payrolls number that exceed expectations, gold did not drop, but went a bit higher. 

It is the next week that will now be much more important. The wiseguys will often trot out a two-step, rather than the simpler smash and grab, when we have too many amateurs anticipating a move in some particular way.

But let's not guess.  Let's see what happens next week. Follow through is everything, and breaking the continuing downtrend of lower highs and lower lows is the only way in which one might say that the trend is broken and the bottom is in on this long bear market in precious metals.

There was nothing important happening at the Comex warehouses or in the delivery report, which is not unusual since we are in an inactive month.  This is opposed to an active month, in which there is a great appearance of activity, but little or nothing actually happens either.