Gold prices failed to rise notably today from its least level in over ten days. The drop in gold prices comes ahead of a well anticipated U.S. retail sales report which will be published today. This crucial data on retail sales is greatly expected to give investors clues on how soon we will be having interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve. Gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange today dropped down to a daily low of $1,316.60 for one troy ounce. This point happens to be the least gold has dropped to since September 2. Yesterday, the yellow precious metal dropped down by $1.90, which is a decline of 0.14%. On Thursday, the US Commerce Department will announce reports on retail sales for last month as investors pay serious attention to this for the timing of the next U.S. interest rate hike. Should the data come out weak, this would imply a lesser growth of the US economy and then increasing sales report would indicate an improving US economy.