Metals slide amid a few positives in U.S. economic data

Gold, silver and mining stocks continued to fall Tuesday morning as the Commerce Department reported a 0.2% monthly and 6.7% year-over-year rise in November retail sales. Though less than forecast, November’s was the sixth consecutive monthly increase, and October’s monthly gain was revised upward to 0.6%. U.S. business inventories rose 0.8% in October, the largest gain in five months, which is another encouraging sign for 4Q GDP.

Spot gold was down nearly 0.3% at 10:50 a.m., with a bid price of $1,660.60 per ounce and an ask price of $1,661.60, having traded as high as $1,679.30 and as low as $1,658.60. The London afternoon reference price fix came in at $1,682.50, according to Kitco market data. A Commerzbank analyst said continued strength in the U.S. dollar is one factor underlying gold’s weakness, according to a BullionVault market report. The next critical support level for gold is around $1,650 an ounce, according to a market note issued by Swiss gold bullion refiner MKS.

Spot silver was down just more than 0.1%, bid at $31.25 with an ask price of $31.35. The morning high as of time of writing was $32.11 per ounce, and the low was $31.10. Monday’s reference price was set at $31.34 in the London a.m.

In Europe, the European Financial Stability Fund successfully completed its first auction of 91-day bills, selling the maximum amount, 1.97 billion euros ($2.6 billion). The proceeds will be used to finance rescue loans to cash-strapped euro zone governments.

U.S. market participants are awaiting word from the Federal Reserve following its last scheduled meeting of 2011. Monetary policy analysts expect that at 2:30 p.m., the Fed will revise its policy of maintaining interest rate! s at nea r zero, as the need for another round of quantitative easing has been diminishing. There was strong demand for new three-year Treasury notes at auction yesterday, and the Treasury is auctioning $21 billion in 10-year notes today.

Turning to stock exchange trading, gold and silver trusts continued to move lower.

• The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was showing losses of about 0.6%.
• The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down around 0.7%.
• The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was moving lower by about 0.8%

Gold and silver mining ETFs were moving lower as well.

• The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was moving lower, down around 1.2%.
• The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was down some 1.5%.
• The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was down nearly 0.2%.

Gold mining shares also were showing losses.

• Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) was showing losses of nearly 1%.
• Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down about 1%.
• Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was showing losses of more than 1.4%.
• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was around 1.1% lower.
• NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) was more than 3% lower.

Silver mining shares continued to fall, though Pan American Silver‘s (NASDAQ:PAAS) shares were standing out by showing sharp gains. No news has been issued by the company.

• Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) was moving lower, down some 1.4%.
• Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was down more than 0.6%.
• Pan American Silver was up about 1.85%.
• Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) was showing losses of 1.5%.
• Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) was down around 0.75%.

As of this writing, Andrew Bu! rger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.