Precious metals spot values are trading sharply lower across the board today, fueled by a stronger US Dollar and a lack of any major developments along major geopolitical fronts. Unfortunately for holders of metals, this week may only just be getting started. The reason I say this is due to the fact that there is a good bit of economic data due out this week, and if things go as expected, the selling pressure may grow more severe.

Despite the end of last week bringing about a lot to talk about with regard to the crisis in Ukraine, the weekend saw things calm down considerably. In fact, the market is once again more or less ignoring the crisis in Ukraine as of the writing of this post. Though there is talk of the European Union imposing more sanctions on Russia sometime this week, that much remains to be seen.

Big Week of Economic Data Ahead

As opposed to the last few weeks, this 5-day trading session is expected to bring about a good bit of economic data. Though the most important pieces of data are not expected to be released until later on in the week, the whole session is expected to be busy.

Catching the attention of the market on Thursday will be the European Central Bank, which is convening for its monthly policy meeting. Just a little over a week ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, ECB president Mario Draghi made it clear that the ECB is seriously considering the implementation of further monetary stimulus across the EU region. After the first batch of stimulus failed to have anything resembling an immediate impact on the EU economy, it is becoming clear that the ECB will need to do something in order to stave off growing deflationary pressures. In fact, a report released this morning by the OECD claimed that deflation is definitely still something the market should be concerned about. As always, it will be interesting to see the outcome of the ECB meeting.

In other news this week, the ever-important US jobs figures are due out on Friday. Despite August being a slow month, the market is still expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 220,000 jobs to have been added last month. If those lofty expectations are met, perhaps we will be one step closer to seeing raised interest rates in the United States. After all, Janet Yellen and her colleagues have reiterated time and time again that it is going to take significant improvement on the part of the US labor situation before interest rates in the US are raised.

Though this week is starting out fairly slow, it is the expectation of mostly everyone that things will pick up, and pick up quickly.