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Happy Friday folks... a Friday the 13th, no less. To tell the truth though, I think any Friday the 13th-related horrors we were due probably came on Wednesday, the 11th, with that big 1.1% drop.

Thing is, an analysis of the market is the least important of all the things we have for you today. In fact, the most important of today's topics has absolutely nothing to do with stocks, and everything to do with proving that people - and sharing some fun - are more important than profits. How that? I can't really explain it. You'll just have to see for yourself. I'll simply say if you want an uplifting story to start your weekend, be sure to check out the last snippet of today's newsletter. It'll take you to a five-minute clip that will have you laughing and crying at the same time.

To get the ball rolling today though, I want to point out something trade-worthy to you that for the life of me I can't understand why none of the major news sources are sharing.

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OK, we're back in the saddle again after a weekend of lousy weather ... for most of you anyway.

Even as today's trading was slowing down heading into the close, it still feels like the dust from Thursday's and Friday's whipsaw is settling. Nevertheless, we can at least start to glean some clues about this market.

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Welcome to the weekend, folks, and what a wild Friday it was! Just when the market was about to pass the bearish point of no return, some stellar employment numbers swooped in to save the day. Friday was not only an encouraging end to the trading week, it was also the biggest daily gain we've seen in a while.

So what does this mean for stocks, and what does it mean for you? I've got some thoughts on the sudden and surprising U-turn from the market. Honestly though, any analysis of today's action is going to be incomplete. The real litmus test for the market is going be the reaction to today's pop, which of course we won't see until Monday.

That's not to say we don't have something great for you today. It's just not our usual market-handicapping fare. Instead, with a little time on our hands (right in front of a weekend, no less), let's look at something that may be more valuable to you than anything we could say about the market at this point.

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Hmmmm. Interesting. This morning it looked like we would indeed get that bounce from the selloff we'd suffered over the course of the prior three days. Then around the middle of the day it looked like the buyers had already gotten tired, and were more than willing to yield to the bears again. Then by the end of the day, stocks had managed to fight their way back to what was basically a breakeven. Thrillsville... not!

You know what though? Even buried in today's indecision there are clues worth a closer inspection. The first thing we need to do, however, is set our target price on gold like we promised you we'd do yesterday. Before we do anything else though...

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I owe all of you an apology. Approximately a month and a half after the end of every calendar quarter for over a year now, we've made a point of taking a good, complete, unbiased look at demand for gold, and how that may impact its price in the future. This time though, I flat out forgot to do it when the World Gold Council published the information in mid-November. We're going to rectify the error today, and show you the gold demand charts nobody else seems to want to put together for you.

If you remember our quarterly gold updates, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about and why these reports are so important. If it doesn't ring a bell though (or if you're new to the newsletter), we're not talking about the day-to-day interest rate or inflation chatter that may or may not affect the price of gold. I'm talking about our thorough look at whether or not gold's buyers are adding or subtracting from their hoard. Money talks, you know?

After that, we most definitely want to dissect the market after today's drubbing. We're now at a major inflection point, and what happens the rest of this week is going to make a huge difference in how December takes shape.