Gold and silver spot values are continuing to decline in value after last Thursday’s jobs data came back much better than anticipated. Still, with many investors from the United States continuing to enjoy an extended weekend, the first day of this 5-day trading session is inordinately quiet. In fact, this entire trading week is shaping up to be quieter than normal due to a lack of any markets-moving economic data.

The market has almost completely ended its focus on the civil war in Iraq as it is more readily being labelled a regional issue rather than a headline-grabbing marketplace concern. Still, as the fighting and violence continues throughout much of the Middle East we will keep an eye on all that is happening. If things in Iraq continue to deteriorate there is no doubt that the market will once more begin to take notice.

Slow Start To A Slow Week

With little to no economic data on the slate for this week, it comes as no surprise that the trading atmosphere we witnessed today was far quieter than normal. Still, what few investors did make their way back to the marketplace ended up having delayed reactions to last week’s upbeat jobs figures. In case you missed it, the Labor Department’s report showed that more than 285,000 jobs were added to the US economy in June. Compared to market expectations for job growth to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 215,000, this data came as a huge surprise to investors both in the United States and around the world. Adding insult to injury from the perspective of gold and silver was the fact that this upbeat report on the US employment sector was enough to push the overall rate of unemployment down to 6.1%, the lowest such reading in more than 5 years.

Now, in the wake of last week’s jobs data, investors are beginning to once again discuss the possibility of raised interest rates sometime in the near future. This discussion alone has been enough to see the USD Index jump forward over the past few days. The surging USD Index is a major reason behind why gold and silver have been edging downwards since last Wednesday. With the FOMC’s latest minutes due out on Wednesday, investors are hoping to gain some insight into what the Fed thinks about the current economic atmosphere in the United States. With that being said, however, investors will more than likely walk away empty-handed on Wednesday as most people with real insight are not expecting this week’s minutes to be anything to write home about.