Well the gold shares held up very well all day and blasted off in the last hour of trading. TSX gold and the HUI were up double digits as the price of gold managed to fight off the sellers and actually turned positive for the day in the last hours of trade.

Usually Friday is a depressing day for us gold advocates, especially in the gold and silver shares but it seems some big players desided that they were going to pull a head fake and go the opposite way. Judging from the volume in the shares I actively watch they managed to weed out a lot of week hands who were all to ready to fill there bids.

While Fridays action is encouraging I will wait to see Mondays action before saying this latest bear raid has run out of legs. If gold and the gold stocks hold up monday I will be in a much more confident frame of mind for the rest of the weekwith regards to golds short term prospects.

The US has continued to antagonize the Chinese while they are trying to enjoy there New Years holiday. Slapping teriffs and officially entertaining political disadents is not a smart way of encouraging your #1 creditor to continue to give you credit or even hold your debt.

I am sure that the Chinese are pleased with the continue strength in the US dollar or should I say weakness in the other currencies.

Whatever happens next week I think it will really get interesting come the middle of the month as all those Chinese traders come back to there desks.

All in my honest opinion of course.

F.F.