The US Department of Labor just released December employment data, and the results are quite interesting. Seasonally adjusted non-farm payrolls increased by only 50,000, significantly below the market expectation of 60,000, and the previous month's figure was revised downward to 64,000 — this surprising data was enough to ignite bullish enthusiasm in precious metals.

But the story isn't that simple. The unemployment rate actually fell to 4.4%, lower than the expected 4.5% and the previous 4.6%. This is a bit awkward: employment is slowing down, yet unemployment is improving. Between these conflicting signals, the dollar bulls can still catch their breath. How the market will digest this contradictory data over the next few days should be quite lively.