NEW YORK (Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are lower in early U.S. trading Monday, amid a stronger U.S. dollar index in the wake of a better-than-expected May U.S. employment report last Friday that fell into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks. August gold was last down $14.10 at $1,955.50 and July silver was down $0.232 at $23.52.
Asian and European stock markets were mixed overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward mixed openings when the New York day session begins. The stronger U.S. non-farm payrolls jobs rise in last Friday’s May employment report reminded the marketplace that the Federal Reserve is likely to remain hawkish on its monetary policy for longer.
In weekend news, Saudi Arabia decided to unilaterally cut its crude oil production by around 1 million barrels per day, starting in July. Meantime, the OPEC-plus cartel at its meeting decided to leave its collective crude oil output unchanged.
In other news, the Euro zone producer price index for May came in at up 1.0%, year-on-year, which was lower than expected.
The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index higher. Nymex crude oil prices are higher and are trading around $73.00 a barrel. Meantime, the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield is presently fetching 3.747%.
U.S. economic data due for release Monday includes the U.S. services PMI, the ISM report on business services, the global services PMI, the employment trends index, and manufacturers’ shipments, orders and inventories.