Gold, Silver Continue Their Slump

A slew of positive economic data sent stocks sharply higher at Thursday’s open, but didn’t help precious metals much. Gold was moving between small gains and losses, while silver prices continued to slide lower. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank’s decision to refrain from any additional monetary stimulus appears to have taken whatever wind was there out of precious metals’ sails.

Spot gold was off slightly, recently trading at $1,582 an ounce. Spot silver was down nearly 0.6%.

Share of Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) were dropping sharply on Thursday, off nearly 6%, as the company reported that all miners at its Lucky Friday mine near Mullan, Idaho had been safely removed from the site following a rock burst that occurred late Wednesday.

While gold and silver were trading off their lows of the day, gold prices are down nearly 7% on the week, and have breached its 200-day moving average support zone, London’s Bullion Vault reports. “Smaller markets tend to get hurt more during periods of heavy selling,” commented Ole Hansen, vice president of trading advisory at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen. “The main problem from an upside perspective is that investment decisions are not being made this time of year which should limit the upside for now.”

Turning to stock exchange trading, gold and silver trusts continued to fall.

The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was showing losses of more than 0.4%.
The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down more than 0.3%.
The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was off 1.3%.

Gold and silver mining ETFs were moving lower as well.

The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was moving lower, down nearly 1.5%.
The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was down 1.5%.
The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was down 0.3%.

Gold mining shares were showing losses across the board.

Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) was showing losses of 2%.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down 1%.
Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was off 0.6%.
Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was around 0.5% lower.
NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) was more than 0.3% lower.

Silver mining shares continued to drop sharply.

Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) was moving lower, down around 2.75%.
Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) was down 3.4%.
Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW)�lost more than 0.4%.
Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) was down more than 3%.

As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not own a share in any of the aforementioned stocks.