The monthly jobs report came out, and the jobs added number was stronger than expected. The initial reaction to these things is not always indicative of where we close for the day, but it’s always interesting to see the immediate reaction (and, five minutes later, the reaction to the reaction).

Stocks (see here via the ES S&P 500 futures) got their first spike up after hours on Thursday when the 173nd declaration of positive trade talks came, this time from Chairman Xi. The second spike, in green, was the initial boost for the jobs report (which is fading as I’m typing this).

Gold initially got smacked, but it sprang right back to life. I’ve been bullish on gold miners, and continue to be.

Volatility, incredibly, almost got down to an 11-handle (!).

The bonds chart, shown below, is much longer-term than the other charts I’ve posted above. I wanted to illustrate that it is near very important support. Similar to gold, bonds got hit hard at first, but they have sprung back to life. If we strength from here, we can finally get a resumption of strengthening interest rates, Herman Cain be damned.