Gold and silver have added to last week’s losses as more downward pressure is being placed on precious metals. A surging US Dollar is doing little to help the ailing metals, as strong economic data is making it seem like a decline in the value of the USD is not likely anytime soon.

With demand from Asia especially weak for this time of year, precious metals are not receiving much help from anywhere. The belief that the Fed may taper Quantitative Easing before the year’s end is gaining strength, something else precious metals investors would rather not hear.

Recently Strong Economic Data

Last week was an exciting one on all accounts if for no other reason than there was a whole lot going on. Apart from the European Central Bank’s policy meeting, investors had a whole load of US economic data to digest. With October’s employment report and 3rd-quarter GDP expected to be released, precious metals investors were all-ears.

First up was the 3rd-quarter GDP report for the United States. Even though the world marketplace was expecting to see annualized GDP rise no more than 2.5%, the actual figure showed a rise of about 2.8%. This news was positive for the US Dollar and in turn initiated what would end up being over a week of constant downward pressure on precious metals. On Friday of last week, October’s employment report shocked even more people as it came in far better than expectations. Even though the market was expecting to see non-farm payrolls rise somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000, actual figures showed an increase in non-farm payrolls of over 200,000. This too helped the USD make gains all the while adding more and more selling pressure to metals.

Another outcome of last week’s positive economic data was the fact that more and more investors and experts are expecting to see the Federal Reserve take some type of action with regard to monetary policy before the year’s end. The renewed belief that Quantitative Easing may be tapered before the year’s end has many people contemplating large-scale reductions in their precious metals holdings. At this point, only time will tell whether or not the FOMC will follow through with monetary policy reductions, but if strong economic data is the only factor determining whether or not the Fed acts, it is looking more and more like they will reduce QE at December’s FOMC meeting.