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The move down in gold yesterday surprised many traders and flashed an exit signal based on MarketClub's daily "Trade Triangle" technology. As we have mentioned before, we felt that gold was in a broad trading range and were not optimistic that it would shoot higher.

The action yesterday confirms that we have more of a two-way market. I expect we'll see further selling on any rallies from this level.

In today's video, I share with you some thoughts I have on gold based on one important element: how gold energy fields propel this market.

Click here to watch today's free video from INOTV.

All the best,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

The Australian economy's recovery is accelerating, as two surveys yesterday indicate.

The ANZ Bank on job ads was very strong in February (see next story), while the National Australia Bank on business conditions and confidence, revealed a very solid February.

The NAB said business confidence was now back at its very high levels of late 2009, while business conditions, which held up in January, have improved again.

Either the latest job ads survey from the ANZ Bank is a tip off that the labour market is tightening significantly, or it's playing catch up to the real economy after showing a fall in ads in January.

The ANZ said yesterday that job ads jumped by 19.1% last month, the best monthly rise in the history of the 11 year old survey.

Slowly the size of the bills for Victoria's storms and Queensland's floods, are taking shape.

So far over 22,000 claims have been received for the two disasters, but it is early days and insurance companies expect that to rise.

Some analysts say 40,000 claims from Victoria might be made.

Insurance Australia Group, which is in a joint venture with RACV in Victoria, plus the business-focused CGU brand, says it has so far received in excess of 10,000 claims from customers.

Suncorp has received more than 12,500 for its Promina, GIO, APIA and other brands.

Shares in Centrebet International rose sharply yesterday after it revealed possible takeover talks.

The shares rose by more than 12% at one stage to a day's high of $1.89.

They ended the day up 10.4% at $1.80, a rise of 17c.

That was after the company had announced that it had received "proposals" that could see it as a takeover target.

Centrebet said it was "facilitating discussions" with organisations which have expressed interest in taking over the punting company.

The market is down 8. The SFE Futures were up 9 this morning.

Wall St. closed slightly higher overnight – up 12 – It was the anniversary of the 2009 bear market low. The Dow was up 60 at best and down 19 at worst. Financials did well on talk the US government would sell its stake in Citigroup.

Metals were mixed overnight on London, oil fell slightly and Gold dropped $1.70 to $1122. The Aussie dollar improved to 91.40c from 90.93c.

In the news today…

    * Atlas Iron (AGO) and Aurox (AXO) have agreed to merger. AXO up a massive 144% or 39c to 66c after their shareholders were offered one Atlas share for every 3 Aurox shares they own, implying a value of 74c based on AGO’s closing price yesterday. AGO down 4c today to 217c.

    * Alesco Corporation (ALS) down 30% to 319c after downgrading their FY earnings guidance to 24-27c from 34-36c. Patersons has cut their recommendation to Sell from Buy.

Atlas Iron made a statement to the ASX yesterday, but not concerning any possible deal for its Ridley project in Western Australia.

The company said Monday that it expected to make a decision by today. Its shares remain suspended.

But the company yesterday reported a rise in first half revenue and a smaller loss as it continues to develop its second mine.

Net loss for the six months to December last year was $24.4 million, down from $42.2 million for the previous corresponding period.

Revenue jumped to $41.7 million, from $3.5 million previously, as it increased production at its flagship Pardoo mine in WA's Pilbara region.

The S&P/ASX200 started Tuesday down, but finished higher by 12 points to close at 4,820.10. The ANZ job survey showed job ads on the internet was higher by 19.6% for February. Overall, total job ads are only 2.3% below the same time last year.

However, economist Warren Hogan has warned that quoting the internet job ad figures isn't ideal. "Newspaper ads are a more reliable indicator than ads on the internet because people have to pay for them, or at least the cost is higher."

Phillip Lowe from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has warned that the Australian economy could grow at a faster than average rate, which will fuel inflation. Read more here.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 11 points, finishing the session at 10,564.38. Wall Street has had the best twelve months rise since the great depression. In fact, the Dow is up over 60% since the same time last year.

In the UK, the FTSE was lower by 4 points, closing to 5,602.30. Strong oil prices drove stocks like Royal Dutch Shell [LON: RDSA] higher by 0.77%, but the major banks and miners dragged the index down.

A quick follow on from yesterday's Money Morning. We like this quote we've found from Professor Walter Block:

"Consider a man and a woman each with a productivity of $10 per hour, and suppose, because of discrimination or whatever, that the man is paid $10 per hour and the woman is paid $8 per hour. It is as if the woman had a little sign on her forehead saying, 'Hire me and earn an extra $2 an hour.' This makes her a desirable employee even for a sexist boss. But when an equal-pay law stipulates that she must be paid the same as the man, the employer can indulge his discriminatory tendencies and not hire her at all, at no cost to himself."

This example is applied to a comparison of male labour versus female labour. As was our article yesterday.

But in reality, it's not even a Male v Female thing.

Because just take the same example and switch in 'skilled worker' in place of 'man' and 'unskilled worker' in place of 'woman' - not that we're saying all female employees are unskilled of course! - and the same principle applies.

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