SO the SPOT GOLD PRICE sank in October, dropping right back to 13-month lows at $683 an ounce. After failing to breach $930, this collapse marked the third step lower from March’s all-time high of $1,032. And from a technical perspective, the Gold Chart looks horrible - recording lower lows and lower highs for the last six months and more.

It’s not only the clouds outside that seem to be lifting. Optimism broke out in various quarters, reflected in global equities. The Dow closed above 13,000 on Thursday. The Nikkei closed above 14,000. The FTSE 100 was over 6,100 by mid-day Friday.

Another batch of earnings announcements sent shares lower, as weak results from non-financial firms fueled investor concerns that economic weakness is spreading to other industries.

A fresh round of earnings reports dragged on U.S. stocks today (Thursday).

Stocks surged today (Wednesday), on a round of earnings releases that met or exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Stocks dipped lower today (Tuesday), as investor confidence about first quarter earnings remains low.

‘The U.S had 0.6% growth in the last quarter and 1% population growth. In my book, that’s a recession. Now Japan is running at about three-and-a-half percent at the moment and they’ve got no population growth so that is a real three-and-a-half percent. So overall, the Japanese are really pretty solid.’— Martin Hutchinson, editor of The Money Map Report

And Europe’s markets continue to fall… but there’s good money to be made elsewhere… especially in one particular corner of South-East Asia.

U.S. stocks posted their biggest decline in two weeks early today (Friday) after an unexpected profit decline by General Electric Co. (GE) reignited worries that the credit crunch is causing more damage than investors realize.

U.S. markets gained after two days in the red on gains in the tech sector and a positive sales report from the nation’s largest retailer.