It's that time of day again... when the precious metal mice will play as the broad market cat is still away but this time it's different. Instead of the smack-down that we have seen around the 8amET time each of the last 10 days, today gold and silver are spiking. It is unclear what the catalyst is - just as it is never clear what the catalyst for the monkey-hammerings are - but the timing with Putin's retaliation threats (specifically against a major bank with a mysteriously active gold vault) suggest some causation.

Charts: Bloomberg