"My view hasn't changed this next leg higher will be led by the precious metal stocks, HUI."
I have the same view. When the miners start leading the metals on the way up, we will know it is serious business. For that to happen the hedgefunds would have to reverse their ratio spreads of long the metals short the miners, as Dan Norcini has explained so many times.
What is happening right now could be the beginning of that scenario. Possibly the hedgefunds started of selling their long positions in the metals on Wednesday in a coordinated fashion to get the price of gold and silver as low as possible. Right now they use the despair among us investors to gradually (or hopefully not so gradually) start covering their short positions in the miners. If the latter is indeed the case, we may see the miners start taking off soon. It would coincide with a break-out of the HUI above the 554-560 area, which would make many of the smaller miners act like popcorn.