I always grumble at how early my biggest dog wakes me up, but it always is the right amount of time to get ready for the day. Thus, here are three quick charts to share…

First up is the USD/JPY; my readers know I went bullish on the dollar last week (by way of short FXY and FXE positions), and the Yen is being particularly cooperative. So far, so good.

Gold, on the other hand, is getting smacked around the room, with a loss of about $20 as I am typing this. That’s OK as long as it can manage to stay above that red line, If we break that, it gets messy (certainly not a swoon, but………..messy). Much cleaner for the bulls would it be for us to find firmness at about $1270 and then push aside to new highs for 2016.

My main relief this morning is crude oil. On Sunday afternoon, when it opened, it absolutely roared higher over 4%. However, it’s basically been leaking all night long, and we’re actually down about half a percent as I am typing this. Given my focus on energy and commodity shorts these days, this is a good thing.