Goldand silver prices are moderately lower in early-afternoon U.S.trading Monday. The safe-haven metals are pressuredby upbeat attitudes among traders and investors to start the trading week.April gold futures were last down $5.00 an ounce at $1,327.80. May Comex silverwas last down $0.099 at $15.82 an ounce.

U.S. stock indexes hit three-month highs today andare trending solidly higher, to underscore positive attitudes in themarketplace that are a negative for the safe-haven metals. Asian and Europeanstock markets were also mostly up overnight, with China’s shares sharply higherand posting their biggest gains in almost four years. Traders and investorsworldwide are cheered by the substantial progress achieved in the U.S.-Chinatrade talks that have been going on the past few weeks. On Sunday,President Trump tweeted that he is delaying the originally imposed early-Marchdeadline for new U.S. tariffs on China’s imports, because of the progress madeso far.

The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollarindex slightly firmer. Nymex crude oil prices are sharply down and tradingaround $55.25 a barrel. These two key “outside markets” were also in a bearishdaily posture for the precious metals today.

The chief executive officer of Newmont Mining, labelleda potential takeover attempt by rival gold miner Barrick Gold Corp., as“nonsensical.”  Following the news of a Barrickbid for Newmont, Gary Goldberg the CEO of Newmont said he was “shocked,” and“concerned.” “I had discussions with Mark [Bristow] before he came into therole about doing something together more broadly in Nevada,” Goldberg said inan interview with Kitco News from the BMO Metals and Mining conference inFlorida.