Only People Making Money Today are Gold and Silver Bulls

Nearly the only people making money today are gold and silver bulls, as the metals spiked upwards on Monday morning. The rest of the market stayed nearly flat. Trading volume was high in the metals--gold saw nearly twelve times average volume. In terms of the major currencies, gold's rally was seen most prominently in U.S. dollar terms, where the metal rose in price nearly 1.3%. In comparative terms, gold was up roughly 0.9% in the Canadian dollar and British pound; 0.85% in the Australian dollar; 0.75% in the Euro. The metal's rally was lagging most severely in the yen, which saw gold appreciate only 0.4%. Even in the Swiss franc, gold rallied 0.6%, despite declining in price almost 2% collectively in the past 30 days. Silver was up strongly as well, rallying $1.00 and 0.72 euros. Traders may be flocking to the precious metals in a safe haven play. With global growth slowing--particularly in the United States, which saw disappointing unemployment figures on Friday--traders may be anticipating further central bank policy easement to keep the economy moving along. Philadelphia's Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser made statements on Monday which would seem to contradict that trading thesis, stating that Federal Reserve would maintain its course despite recent economic news and may even tighten policy this year. However, Plosser is a noted inflation-hawk and represents only a single vote on a the committee. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is generally less hawkish. Thus, Plosser's comments should be taken for what they are worth. Traders looking to chase the rally may wish to buy gold in terms of yen, as it is lagging in price most strongly in that Asian currency. Traders could also consider today's move to be merely a bit of what is to come. In that case, traders might take positions in the SPDR Gold Trust GLD or iShares Silver Trust SLV. GLD was up roughly 0.50% Monday morning, while SLV was up almost 2.25%.