There are a lot of conflicting trends at work in the gold market. Gold does well amid crisis situations and inflation prospects. Both of these factors are abating, at least for the time being. Portugal has had a successful bond offering, raising hopes that the eurozone will be able to withstand its crisis and preserve the euro.

In China, where inflation is worrisome, the government raised China's lenders reserve requirements. Markets in Asia and Europe sold off following this move.

In the U.S., markets are holding firm on good profits from Intel and JPMorgan Chase. As yo can see this is a mixed bag.

Investors searching for opportunities will be hard pressed to find stocks that are still undervalued. It seems like this rally has pushed every sector to very high levels. Perhaps, it may be time to look in more off-the-cuff places for investment ideas.

One possibility trades on the Amsterdam-based exchange, the Euronext. The Dutch insurer, Delta Lloyd Group, which has operations in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, is a profitable company with a favorable balance sheet that trades at a significant discount to its book value. In the first half of 2010, it generated €767 million of income after taxes and non-controlling interests, a 263% increase. At the same time, it has €3,903 billion in tangible assets net of all liabilities, but a market cap of just € 2,810 billion as of January 11. In other words, investing in Delta Lloyd is like buying assets, with all liabilities paid off, at a 30% discount.

Three intermarket commodities are on the move today. The Financial Times reported that the U.S. dollar hit a low against the Swiss franc.

Why is this noteworthy? First the Swiss franc is a separate currency, not part of the euro. With Europe in disarray, the only safe currency is the Swiss franc. Anyone wanting to hedge against the eurozone getting worse would buy the Swiss franc. On the futures market, the March Swiss is trading at 1.05610, up 0.0138 (9:20 EDT). The March U.S. dollar is trading at 80.18, down 0.49.

The eurozone debt crisis is spreading across Europe. The latest Irish bailout is not quelling the fear factor. Now, all eyes are turned to Spain, Portugal and Italy.

What has happened is that banking systems are freezing up, the Financial Times explains. One Spanish banker told the paper, "The bond and credit markets are completely closed."

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis has bubbled to the surface again. This time Ireland is in the cross hairs. Ireland may need aid, primarily to bail out its banks. Ireland says it has enough cash to carry it through next summer, but the key concern is keeping Irish banks afloat during this crisis. So far, Ireland hasn't requested financial aid from the European Union.

This uncertainty has set off a selling spree in the euro. About two weeks ago the euro was trading at $1.42. Since the Irish crisis began the euro dropped to $1.35.

Spot gold in London hit $1,299.65. The December gold futures contract traded at $1,301.30, setting new record highs, as reported in Reuters.

Gold resumed its rally mode when the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated that it will provide more stimulus to the U.S. economy. That triggered commodities to move higher in anticipation of more inflation.

Greece's debt woes this spring and talk of comparable problems in other debt-plagued eurozone nations, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, had the euro bears talking euro-dollar parity as the euro plunged to $1.1877 in early June -- a four-year low.

But a month later the euro has strengthened 5.8% to $1.2574, and suddenly the teeth of the euro bears do not look as sharp.

Spanish banks are scrambling to borrow record amounts from the European Central Bank (ECB) for fear that they will not be able to borrow from international capital markets.

Last month, Spanish banks borrowed 85.6 billion euros from the ECB, double the amount borrowed during the Lehman collapse, and amounting to 16.5% of all loans granted by the ECB. This is the highest amount since the launch of the eurozone in 1999.

The European mess is still smoldering. The greatest fear among traders is that eurozone governments will be unable to enact or follow through on the austerity measures needed to bring deficits under control.

Last week Hungary joined the club of distressed nations. Yet, over the weekend, Hungary's government sought to reassure investors saying that the country is not facing a sovereign credit default.

In an about face, G20 finance ministers dropped their support for fiscal stimulus. The communique from Saturday's meeting in South Korea stated: "The recent events highlight of sustainable public finances and the need for our countries to put in place credible growth friendly measures to deliver sustainability."

Back in April the G20 group was hep on continuing their stimulus programs. Their statement then called for fiscal support to "be maintained until the recovery is firmly driven by the private sector and becomes more entrenched."

China's largest sovereign wealth fund, China Invest Corp. (CIC) is "very concerned" about market fluctuations in the eurozone. Gao Xiqing, president of CIC, said that he would keep the current investment level in Europe, no more, no less.

The official China news agency Xinhua said "CIC is very concerned about the short-term market fluctuations and threatened euro zone stability."

It seems that Europe is racing to make budget cuts to bring down deficits. The Greek sovereign debt crisis was the catalyst for other member countries to initiate budget cuts to bring spending down closer to the eurozone agreed target of 3%.

National and local governments went on a spending spree, spurred on bailout money from the major banks. They overspent and now must enact austerity measures to combat the excessive debt.

It's a wild and woolly world out there, especially in Europe. Today Fitch downgraded Portugal's debt. The Greek crisis shows no signs of solution. Germany is playing hardball, refusing to help Greece refinance its upcoming debt. The eurozone is in a state of disarray.

As a consequence, the euro is falling out of bed and the dollar is screaming higher. Gold, which trades opposite the dollar, tumbled to a five month low. with April futures closing at $1,086.20 down $14.90 The June euro futures are trading at $1.3348 down .01410 (2:45 EDT) and the June dollar futures are trading at 82.040 up .922.