Upbeat trader and investor riskappetites in recent weeks are keeping gold and silver buyers scarcer. If worldstock markets remain in near-term price uptrends it will be difficult for goldand silver markets to sustain rallies. However, there are some very earlytechnical clues the U.S. stock indexes might be seeing their price uptrendsstarting to “roll over.” Price action the rest of this week will be extraimportant for the U.S. stock indexes, and in turn the fortunes of gold andsilver bulls.

Inovernight news, the unofficial China purchasing managers’ index (PMI) forFebruary came in at its lowest level since October. China also on Tuesdaylowered its projected gross domestic product growth for the year. TheNational People’s Congress lowered its 2019 GDP growth estimate to a rate of6.0% to 6.5%, from 6.5%. Chinese economic officials also pledged to continue tosupport the manufacturing sector and emerging businesses, including new deficitspending and tax cuts. The trade war with the U.S. the past year has dented theChinese economy, which in turn has likely made Chinese leadership keen to endits trade war with the U.S. The National People’s Congress annual meeting inChina is taking place this week. A slowing Chinese economy can be read asbearish for gold, as consumer demand for the metal has likely decreased.Chinese citizens are major gold consumers.

Attentionof the marketplace is turning to later this week, when the European CentralBank’s regular monetary policy meeting occurs on Thursday. The ECB is expected to loosen itspurse strings and provide more low-interest financing to Euro zone banks inorder to stimulate an anaemic Euro zone economy.

The U.S. jobs report fromthe Labour Department is due out Friday morning. That’s arguably the most important U.S. economic data point ofthe month. The key non-farm payrolls number is forecast to come in at up180,000.