Gold Down Early with Busy Week Ahead

Spot gold was moving lower in early Monday trading. With a bid at $1,832.60 and
an asking price of $1,833.60 around 11 a.m., spot market gold hit a morning high
of $1825.40 and a low of $1848.30. The weeks economic calendar is chock full of
new data releases, as market participants look for further signs as to how
severe the current U.S. economic slowdown might be and how bad credit market
conditions in the European Union will become. Spot silver was trading at $40.95
Bid, $41.05 Ask, down $0.43, or 1.04%, having been fixed at a price of $40.81
per ounce in the London a.m. The price of an ounce of gold was fixed at $1,834
at the London p.m. gold fix. Looking ahead this week, PPI releases for August
are due out Wednesday, along with August retail sales ex-auto, July business
inventories and weekly crude oil inventories. Thursday will see the release of
weekly initial and continuing jobless claims, August CPI, the New York regional
Empire Manufacturing survey, Q2s US current account balance, August industrial
production and capacity utilization, and the Philadelphia Fed survey for
September. Septembers Michigan survey of consumer sentiment is due out Friday.
Looking at precious metals and miners share trading on the exchanges, gold and
silver trusts were moving lower. The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD ) was around
1.3% lower. The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU ) was down nearly 1.5%. The
iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV ) was nearly 2% lower. Gold and silver mining
ETFs were down sharply. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX ) was down
around 1.65%. The Market Vector Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDXJ ) was some
2.9% lower. The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE: SIL ) was 3.15% lower. Shares
of gold miners were broadly lower. Agnico Eagle Mines (USA) (NYSE: AEM ) was
down some 0.25%. Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX ) was around 0.8% lower. Goldcorp
(NYSE: GG ) was off around 2.6%. Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM ) was some
2.25% lower. NovaGold Resources (USA) (AMEX: NG ) was off about 1.5%. Silver
mining shares were moving lower early Monday, with Silver Standard Resources
plunging. Coeur DAlene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE ) was around 1.3% lower. Hecla
Mining (NYSE: HL ) was off around 1.15%. Pan American Silver Corp. (USA)
(NASDAQ: PAAS ) was down more than 2.15%. Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) (NYSE: SLW
) was around 1.6% lower. Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ: SSRI )
was around 8% lower. The author does not hold positions in any of the
above-mentioned investments.