In the US, the S&P500 rose for the fourth straight day to a fresh record high yesterday.
Meanwhile a slightly weaker US dollar failed to boost metal prices.
Aluminium was the only base metal firmly on the rise on the London Metal Exchange yesterday, with Marex Spectron noting the LME on-warrant inventory was sitting at 806,000 tonnes, back down at decade lows.
Gold was lower than this time yesterday, heading down towards US$1,203 an ounce.
Gold major Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) closed down 0.3% in the US while in Toronto, Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX) finished 0.15% lower.
Metals and miners were positive in Toronto overall, up around 0.45%.
Among the juniors, Nevada Exploration (TSXV: NGE) shot up almost 39% on closing the first tranche of an upsized placement for gross proceeds of almost C$1.3 million.
It said it was "radically reducing" the costs of exploration in Nevada's covered basins, by developing its Scorpion drill rig to follow up "the world's largest groundwater sampling programme for gold exploration".
Finally in lunchtime Australian trade, copper miner Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) was one of the bigger market risers.
It was up almost 9.9% at the time of writing after announcing record sales revenue in its full year results, increasing dividend payments and outlining a strong outlook for its copper-gold operations.
