The minutes from the July FOMC meeting were released today. The document indicated that most Federal Reserve officials still believe that high levels of inflation are an ongoing threat and merit additional interest rate hikes.

One could expect that the latest government report on retail sales revealing that they increased by 0.7% in July would garner a positive reaction in U.S. equities. However, it had the exact opposite effect taking all three major indices lower.

Prices of both spot and futures gold declined between 0.30% and 0.40% today, a direct correlation to dollar strength and higher U.S. Treasury yields. The dollar gained 0.35% in trading today taking the index to 103.05.