The spot values of precious metals opened up what is shaping up to be a quiet Monday in less than impressive fashion. As of the writing of this post, both spot gold and silver are moving downward. If the last few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that the global marketplace is growing increasingly bearish and is flat-out less interested in the prospect of attaining precious metals as a hedge against inflation.

The situation in Ukraine, which has been providing fundamental, safe-haven support for precious metals for a majority of this year, has also been seen calming down in recent days. Over the weekend, it was reported that much of the gunfire taking place along the Eastern corridor of Ukraine has ceased and given way to humanitarian efforts and things of that nature. Though there is still fighting taking place, things are much less tense now than they were only a few weeks ago. of course, the situation is still volatile, and for that reason we will continue to keep a close eye on any and all developments.

Weak Asian Data Consumes the Market

Despite the fact that this week will more than likely end up being a fairly active one, the early parts of Monday have seen investors focusing pieces of data that usually get ignored.

During the overnight hours, a report from China indicated that the country’s trade surplus hit an all-time record high of near $50 billion during August. As you could have probably guessed, this surplus was far larger than anyone had guessed it would be. In addition to this, it was reported that China’s exports during August improved by more than 9% on an annualized basis, but their imports only jumped up a little more than 2%. This news acted as an underlying bearish factor for precious metals and other raw commodities seeing as China is the world’s largest commodity-importer.

In news from Japan, a report released during the overnight hours indicated that the Japanese economy contracted by more than 7% on an annualized basis during 2014′s second quarter. Though that is a massive contraction, no one is all that surprised considering the weak nature of the Japanese economy in recent years.

Another factor that was really hurting gold during the early morning hours of Monday was a stronger USD index. The greenback hit another 13-month high today and is only seeming to get stronger with each passing trading day. So long as the USD is as strong as it is now, any upward movements on the part of precious metals will be difficult to sustain.