Gold, silver and mining stocks continued to fall Tuesday morning as the Commerce Department reported a 0.2% monthly and 6.7% year-over-year rise in November retail sales. Though less than forecast, November’s was the sixth consecutive monthly increase, and October’s monthly gain was revised upward to 0.6%. U.S. business inventories rose 0.8% in October, the largest gain in five months, which is another encouraging sign for 4Q GDP.

Spot gold was down nearly 0.3% at 10:50 a.m., with a bid price of $1,660.60 per ounce and an ask price of $1,661.60, having traded as high as $1,679.30 and as low as $1,658.60. The London afternoon reference price fix came in at $1,682.50, according to Kitco market data. A Commerzbank analyst said continued strength in the U.S. dollar is one factor underlying gold’s weakness, according to a BullionVault market report. The next critical support level for gold is around $1,650 an ounce, according to a market note issued by Swiss gold bullion refiner MKS.

Spot silver was down just more than 0.1%, bid at $31.25 with an ask price of $31.35. The morning high as of time of writing was $32.11 per ounce, and the low was $31.10. Monday’s reference price was set at $31.34 in the London a.m.

In Europe, the European Financial Stability Fund successfully completed its first auction of 91-day bills, selling the maximum amount, 1.97 billion euros ($2.6 billion). The proceeds will be used to finance rescue loans to cash-strapped euro zone governments.

U.S. market participants are awaiting word from the Federal Reserve following its last scheduled meeting of 2011. Monetary policy analysts expect that at 2:30 p.m., the Fed will revise its policy of maintaining interest rates at near zero, as the need for another round of quantitative easing has been diminishing. There was strong demand for new three-year Treasury notes at auction yesterday, and the Treasury is auctioning $21 billion in 10-year notes today.

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

• The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was showing losses of about 0.6%.
• The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down around 0.7%.
• The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was moving lower by about 0.8%

Gold and silver mining ETFs were moving lower as well.

• The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was moving lower, down around 1.2%.
• The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was down some 1.5%.
• The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was down nearly 0.2%.

Gold mining shares also were showing losses.

• Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) was showing losses of nearly 1%.
• Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down about 1%.
• Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was showing losses of more than 1.4%.
• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was around 1.1% lower.
• NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) was more than 3% lower.

Silver mining shares continued to fall, though Pan American Silver‘s (NASDAQ:PAAS) shares were standing out by showing sharp gains. No news has been issued by the company.

• Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) was moving lower, down some 1.4%.
• Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was down more than 0.6%.
• Pan American Silver was up about 1.85%.
• Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) was showing losses of 1.5%.
• Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) was down around 0.75%.

As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.