Better than expected industrial production numbers out of China eased fears of a global slowdown in the BRICs, and less wretched than anticipated retail sales numbers in the US helped to spark a stock rally, as we had indicated might happen.
The next couple of days will tell us if this is a trend change or a dead cat bounce. Keep in mind this is an option expiration week.
I took a broad stock index short in the last hour of trade near the peak of the rally. I will use that to balance my remaining long position in gold, having taken the profits on the miners I picked up on the downtrend last week.
