Commodities started out the new year on a rather aggressive note, with investors sinking prices for gold and oil in a move that actually makes sense, given all the issues the market will be forced to contemplate this year.

It was almost impossible to find a commodity that actually went higher today, as sellers were out in force. Gold got absolutely slammed, dropping as much as $21 at one point. Things weren’t much better over in the oil patch, with crude getting down to the mid-$50 range, which we haven’t seen in several years. Crude futures have been in a free fall, with the February contract losing a combined Wednesday and Thursday total loss of more than 9%. Ouch!

Then, on top of it all, the government announced job growth in the U.S. unexpectedly accelerated in December, with nonfarm payrolls rising by 167,000 and the jobless rate remaining at a very low 4.5%. Only 100,000 jobs were expected, so now hope is pretty much lost that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon. Average hourly earnings in December jumped by 8 cents, or 0.5%, far ahead of the 0.3% rise expected.