Gold and silver are suffering a bit of a corrective pullback in the early parts of Tuesday after significant gains were made by both metals at the end of last week and on Monday. Today will feature a light helping of economic data though that will change starting tomorrow. Investor confidence in precious metals is still depressed, especially after a confusing price-run in the gold futures market yesterday.

The large amount of economic data due out this week will undoubtedly help give investors a clearer picture of the US employment and economic situations.

Economic Data Due Out This Week

Monday brought with it some economic data but it failed to affect the precious metals market much at all. On the slate yesterday was the non-manufacturing ISM report as well as the latest report on factory orders in the US. These reports were, for the most part, overlooked by investors.

Today the economic data will lag a bit, but tomorrow is looking like it will paint a different picture. For one, the latest FOMC minutes are expected to be released later in the afternoon on Wednesday. A recent decision by the Federal Reserve to taper its monthly bond-buying initiative has precious metals investors skittish. Comments by members of the Fed have made it seem like the Federal Reserve aspires to pursue and enact furhter tapering measures throughout this year. Investors will be analyzing tomorrow’s minutes in hopes of uncovering any sort of evidence either confirming or denying this growing notion.

Also due out this week is plenty of US employment data. In the past, employment in the US was seen as one of the major drivers behind the Federal Reserve’s decisions about monetary policy. If investors are convinced that the Fed wants to reduce Quantitative Easing even more they are hoping to see positive employment numbers from this week’s reports. Due out this week include the ADP employment report, weekly jobless claims report, and the ever-important non-farm payrolls data from December. After enduring a unusually quiet holiday trading atmosphere for the last two weeks or so, this data will be of particular importance to investors.

The European Central Bank is scheduled to have its monthly policy meeting on Thursday, but at this point it is not expected that any major policy changes will be made as a result of the meeting.