The dollar seemed on the fast track to cruise past 100 yen and beyond recently. During the six week long stock market rally, the dollar surge to a high point of 101 yen on April 6th. However, as the Dow has flattened and held above 8,000 the last couple weeks, the dollar’s momentum against its Japanese counterpart has waned.

After ending last week slightly higher versus most of its currency counterparts, the USD began this week’s trading with a continuation of its recent uptrend, appreciating against every currency rival except the JPY.

The USD held minor gains against some pairs today but ended the day mixed as cross-spreaders took gains off the table and put the majors into near-term S/R; traders note that stops in range and US data today contributed to intraday volatility but by the end of the day the majors held key S/R putting the Greenback back on the defense through the end of the week.

This year’s corporate mantra for a crowd of junior explorers and miners is quite simple: “get us some near term gold production fast” (or some variation thereof).

The U.S. currency continues to strengthen given the recent demand for riskier currencies. Falls in equity markets have driven traders to reduce their positions in riskier, higher yielding currencies. Many of the uncertainties in the currency markets are due to earnings season on Wall Street.

THE PRICE OF physical gold fell against all major currencies early Thursday, dropping 2% versus the Dollar as global stock markets jumped and Treasury bonds were sold lower.