Base metals and mining stocks had finished lower on the LSE on Friday, with the metals and mining sector down 3.52% with declines by Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) and Anglo American (LSE: AAL) in the order of about 4%.
China returned from a week-long holiday today on a gloomy note as its trade woes with the US look set to continue.
Meanwhile the US is observing Columbus Day today, or Indigenous Peoples Day in some states.
The S&P500 metals and mining sector had closed down 1.12% on Friday, with gold stock Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) the exception, up 0.69%.
Gold continues to hover close to the US$1,200 an ounce mark, worth around $1,197/oz on the spot market earlier.
In Toronto, the diversified mining sector finished in positive territory on Friday, up 0.93%, with a 2.1% gain by Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.B).
The TSX gold stocks were book-ended by Torex Gold's (TSX: TXG) gain of 3.66% and New Gold's (TSX: NGD) drop of 4.72%.
The former had mid-week reported record gold production of more than 100,000oz for the third quarter, while the latter plans to release its quarterly results on October 24.
Finally there were mixed moves by Australian miners, with rare earths company Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC) up 2.5% in late trade following its call last week for a fair, objective and transparent review of its Malaysian operations, while diversified miner South32 (ASX: S32) was down more than 5%.
