Gold and silver were moving lower along with stocks Thursday morning despite a positive report on December unemployment and private sector hiring, along with healthy bidding at an auction of French treasury bonds. Disturbingly, the yield on Italy’s benchmark 10-year bond moved back above the key 7% level, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Spot gold was trading 0.5% lower Thursday morning, with a bid price of $1,604.40 and an ask price of $1,605.40. Spot gold traded as high as $1,613.50 per ounce and as low as $1,596. The London afternoon reference price fix came in at $1,599, $14 lower than Wednesday’s price fix, according to Kitco market data.

Spot silver was down some 0.86%, bid at $28.91 per ounce with an ask price of $29.01. The morning high as of time of writing was $29.23 and the low was $28.63. Thursday’s reference price was set at $28.92 in the London a.m., 26 cents per ounce lower than Wednesday’s price fix.

Closing out 2011 strong, the headline seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ending Dec. 24 fell 0.1% from the previous week to 2.8%, the Labor Department reported. Initial claims for unemployment fell to 372,000 last week, a drop of 15,000 from the revised figure from two weeks ago. The four-week moving average fell to 373,250, a drop of 3,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 376,500.

Seasonally adjusted non-farm private sector employment rose 325,000 month-over-month in December, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report, which was released this morning. November’s estimated increase was revised down slightly, from 206,000 to 204,000.

Gold bullion reached a two-week high of $1,625 per ounce in London morning trading Thursday before dropping back to $1,609, according to BullionVault‘s London Gold Market report. “We believe that gold prices will recover in 2012, and we maintain our bullish posture,” HSBC analyst James Steel said, despite cutting his average 2012 forecast from $2,025 to $1,850 per ounce this week.

On the exchanges, gold and silver trusts were heading lower.

• The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was showing losses of around 0.2%.
• The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down more than 0.1%.
• The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was down around 0.7%.

Gold mining ETFs were falling as well.

• The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was about 0.5% lower.
• The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was down nearly 2.6%.
• The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was around 0.8% lower.

Gold mining shares were broadly lower, Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) the exception.

• Agnico-Eagle Mines was showing gains of some 0.6%.
• Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down about 0.25%.
• Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) was down some 0.5%.
• Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was more than 0.7% lower.
• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was unchanged.
• NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) was down 1% and more.

Silver mining shares also were heading south.

• Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) was moving lower, down more than 1%.
• Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was down more than 1.7%.
• Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) was down some 0.6%.
• Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) was showing losses of around 0.6%.
• Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) was down nearly 1.2%.

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.