Gold climbed 1 percent early on Monday, buoyed by weak Chinese factory data and earlier dollar weakness, lifting prices above the prior session's six-week low, though caution over the timing of a US interest rate hike kept prices hemmed within a narrow range. Silver also jumped, to its highest level in nearly four weeks, on the coattails of gold prices. Trading across financial markets was thinned by a UK holiday on Monday.
Spot gold was up 1 percent at $1,189.65 an ounce at 2:58 pm EDT (1858 GMT), off a high of $1,193, while US gold futures for June delivery settled up $12.30 an ounce at $1,186.80.
"We got some good news for gold coming out of China overnight; the drop in PMI lifted gold. The dollar's strong but gold is holding," said Eli Tesfaye, senior market strategist for brokerage RJO Futures in Chicago. "We see technical improvement in gold precipitated from overnight news from China." On Friday, spot prices fell to $1,170.20 an ounce, the lowest since March 20, after the Federal Reserve indicated that it saw a recent slowdown in the US economy as transitory and did not rule out an interest rate rise this year.
A rate rise - the first in nearly a decade - would lift the opportunity cost of holding gold, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced. Investors will be monitoring the key US non-farm payrolls report for April due on Friday, for their impact on the dollar and interest rate expectations. "If we have another weak set of data this week ... I would expect gold prices to go higher," ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. "Of course, a stronger (US payrolls) report would not be good for precious metals, so I think people are a bit cautious this week."
In the physical markets, gold demand picked up after the metal's sharp losses last week. Premiums on the Shanghai Gold Exchange ticked up to $3-$4 on Monday from about $2 last week. Among other precious metals, silver was up 1.9 percent at $16.44 an ounce. Platinum was up 1.6 percent at $1,145 an ounce, while palladium was up 1.2 percent at $781.80 an ounce.
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