Welcome to the today’s Afternoon Brief- Four hours into the U.S. session equities continue to climb after Spain released its 2013 budget.  According to a release from Deputy Prime Minister the budget will focus on spending cuts and not raise taxes.  U.S. market participants rallied on the news as the budget reform is for the most part will not affect U.S. investors from an export viewpoint.  The U.S. exports to Spain are limited.

DJIA +0.60% rose 80.53 points to 13494.04 The S&P 500 index SPX +0.91% rose 13.07 points to 1446.39. The NASDAQ Composite COMP +1.61% gained 35.85 points to 3129.55. (12:39 p.m. ET)

Gold prices moved higher by $26.30 or 1.51% (12:39 p.m.ET) rocketing off the two week low form yesterday as strikes spread across South Africa and mixed economic data in the U.S.

The release of Spain’s budget seems to have slowed the price of gold as it backs off from the sessions high.

Equity only readers gain exposure to the gold through the SPDR Gold Shares Trust (GLD, quote) ETF that seeks to replicate the performance, net of expenses, of the price of gold bullion. The GLD trust holds gold, and is expected to issue baskets in exchange for deposits of gold, and to distribute gold in connection with redemption of baskets.

Afternoon Brief Bottom Line:

Markets appear to be on the move going into end of third quarter.