by Alasdair Macleod, GoldMoney:

Negative sentiment in paper markets for precious metals prevails while the macro investing world tries to come to terms with higher interest rates. In early morning trade in Europe this morning, gold was at $1659, down $34 from last Friday’s close. Over the same time scale, silver was down $1.25 at $18.78. While generally low, volumes on Comex picked up yesterday after a minor sell off on Wednesday following higher-than-expected US CPI numbers, indicating higher interest rates from the Fed than the market had discounted ahead of the figures.