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Did everyone have a good weekend?I hope so. If not, maybe we can give you something exciting to start the new workweek with... a new trading idea. First though, let's dig into today's market action.

If there was any lingering doubt about how serious the bears were, today's trading session wiped it away. That's why we're going to be short and sweet today and let the chart do most of the talking. Take a look.

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I hope everyone's Friday went well. Anything's got to be better than Thursday's implosion, right?

Like I told you on Thursday, be leery of today's bullishness, as it was apt to be short-lived. Stocks fell hard yesterday, and were apt to bounce no matter what. The market's still on the losing end of the battle here.

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Well ladies and gents, it's here. I mentioned to you a couple of days ago how the World Gold Council's quarterly report was due to be published, and the group posted the Q2 report today.

Just for the sake of continuity, we'll simply update the same charts we showed you three months ago. A picture really is worth a thousand words, and our small gallery told you everything you needed to know about the way the gold demand trend is changing.

First and foremost, gold demand fell again, this time by 11% from Q1's consumption. The 853 tonnes of gold the world used last quarter was the weakest demand we'd seen for gold since the second quarter of 2009... right before gold mania started in earnest. And, bear in mind total demand slumped despite the fact that gold prices were as low as they've been in more than two years.

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Howdy folks, and happy Friday. Does everyone agree that even a lousy Friday is better than a great Monday? (That is, unless you work on the weekends.)

Anyway, as far as stocks are concerned, Friday was plenty lousy. What may have been obscured is the fact that the whole week was a crummy one too. It was the biggest weekly loss we'd seen in the last seven, and would have been the only loser in the last seven weeks had it not been for the 0.02% dip three weeks ago.

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Sorry today's newsletter is getting out to you a little later than usual. I had to wait until the market closed before I could begin dissecting today's action... a testament to just how "down to the wire" things were on Wednesday. Annoyingly enough, traders decided to end the day by not making much of a decision - the indices are still trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Remember how yesterday I told you the 20-day moving average was going to be the make-or-break line? Looks like the whole market was listening. The S&P 500 moved under that level for a while today, but when push came to shove at the end of the session, the bulls decided to make a stand. The VIX closed back under its 20-day moving average line too, validating my analysis from yesterday, but driving everybody nuts in the process.