The Gold Report: What is the consensus among Haywood analysts on what 2012 will bring for mine commodities, particularly precious metals?
Joe Mazumdar: Last year, risk aversion was a common market theme. In 2012, some of the same global economic concerns, such as the ongoing Eurozone crisis and the future of the euro, will continue to draw attention. But we also believe there is potential for positive economic indicators, primarily from the U.S., where there have been upticks in manufacturing and GDP growth. Also, unemployment in the U.S. is down to 8.5%, generating some consumer confidence.

Today's action amounted to a bit of a non-event. Tight price action was combined with low volume. The quiet action did little to change the broader picture, or the technical health of the indices.

The only point of interest in the S&P was the increasing disparity in relative strength between the S&P and Russell 2000.

Today was the first distribution day for the year in the S&P and the second for the Nasdaq.  Despite the selling there was little change on the nature of the rally. A sequence of selling would obviously change this, but today offered little more than profit taking.

Selling in the S&P retraced some, but not all of yesterday's gains. If this is the start of a longer decline then the 20-day MA is the likely support area for buyers to make their next appearance.

Despite missing yesterday's update there was little to split today's or yesterday's action. The only index to attempt to put some distance on the two days was the Russell 2000. Small Caps again attempted to retake the leadership role off Tech stocks as relative strength swung back in their favour; there was even a 'Golden Cross' between the 20-day and 200-day MAs.

A little disappointing markets weren't able to push on after a strong start, but many indices registered accumulation days.

The S&P finished near its October swing high, although it's in the process of turning this former resistance level into support. While stochastics are overbought, On-Balance-Volume and MACD continue to trend higher on the side of bulls.