Inflation Data Clip Gold

As for the official sector, the European Central Bank says it sold 31 million euros of gold and receivables, or almost 2 tons, last week, down from almost 12 tons a week earlier.

Among the miners, shares of Newmont Mining(NEM Quote) and Barrick Gold(ABX Quote) were both slipping about 0.3% in recent action.

Turning to base metals, Comex copper contracts were adding 3 cents at $3.57 a pound recently.

"The pattern of strong openings [for copper] and a tail-off in the afternoon seems to be developing while prices consolidate, but at some stage we expect prices to push higher again," writes William Adams, an analyst at BaseMetals.com in London, in a recent report.

Copper prices have rallied from around $2.40 a pound in early February as demand from China has picked up following a slowdown in consumption during the latter part of 2006.

Elsewhere, HSBC Securities raised its rating on shares of diversified miner Rio Tinto(RTP Quote) to overweight from neutral, but traders were still marking down the stock 0.9%.

As for the ferrous metals sector, Matrix Research dinged shares of Olympic Steel(ZEUS Quote) down to a sell rating from a buy, sending the shares off 3.5% recently.