With respect to the short-term picture, the futures have done little to encourage lately.  In fact, the sleazy head-fake on the opening bar Friday looked more like a short-squeeze-distribution ploy than bullish buying. It also failed to clear some minor peaks from last Monday, furthering the suspicion that Gold is in no great hurry to take flight. In any event, an upthrust today would need to exceed 1378.40 to catch fire.  That’s the midpoint resistance on the pattern shown in the chart. ______ UPDATE (2:47 p.m. ET): It’s shortly before 3 a.m. and the futures have been as high as 1364.80. The nearest HP target is 1366.10, but if the futures shred it, getting to — and then past — 1378.40 shouldn’t be a problem.