A pair of surprises pressured gold and silver today. One was not a huge surprise. The other was. And out came tumbling all sorts of repercussions.  

The ECB was bound to lower interest rates at some point although the timing seemed a little quick from what the news from the European Central Bank was hinting at. The speed with which it happens most likely means that Germany is seeing serious sluggishness in its economy. Otherwise a few weeks to a month would have been needed to twist the German arms.

The big surprise is the growth rate of the U.S. economy, which expanded at a 2.8% annualized rate in the 3rd quarter. There is a caveat inherent in those figures, however. Consumer and business spending both contracted and the growth was due to a build up of product inventories. Now we will have to draw down on those come this, the 4th quarter. 

There was strength in new housing and non-federal government spending grew at a good clip. But the vast bulk of growth came from the inventory stockpiling. Some stockpiling is normal before the winter holidays begin, but this was an unusually large add-to.

There are other fundamental factors shoving gold around the investment boxing ring recently.  We've touched on them before, but it bears some recapping. 

A recent strong run of the equities market on a better economic outlook is sapping momentum in gold, a traditional safe haven. U.S. stocks measured by the S&P 500 index fell on Thursday but stayed within striking distance of the record high set last week. "When the stocks are rallying, investors have little reasons to head to safe havens and physical assets like gold, as they can go into the stock market and do well there," said Thomas Capalbo, a precious metals broker at New York futures brokerage Newedge. 

Returning for a moment to the inventories issue so we can discuss our old friend the Federal Reserve, it should be noted that a jump in inventories is almost always followed by a decline in production. A decline in production means less hiring or even some firing. That could threaten whatever potential labor participation growth there is simmering in November. The brunt of lower or negative hiring would be seen the first part of January.

The positive side of the report showed that consumer spending on goods leaped at a 4.3% annual rate, the fastest in 20 months. The gain was led by 7.8% annual growth in spending on autos and other long-lasting manufactured goods. Again, though, a footnote: traditionally September is one of the biggest car-selling months of the year.

What will this mean for the December FOMC meeting? The employment figures for October, which are due out tomorrow, will hold a key. The November report will, as well, due out in early December. 

The beat goes on.