Gold fell in quiet trade on Monday, weighed down by lack of investment interest after Friday's short-covering rally by bullion investors who had feared US job gains would sharply exceed Wall Street's expectations. Investors took profits after gold gained more than 1 percent on Friday, its biggest one-day jump in three weeks. Nonfarm payrolls data Friday showed US employers filled 192,000 jobs last month, slightly below economists' estimate of 200,000.
"Investors are not taking any interest in the precious metals right now, and gold and silver are definitely in tight trading ranges," said Jonathan Jossen, a COMEX gold options floor trader. Spot gold was down 0.4 percent to $1,297 an ounce by 2:36 pm EDT (1836 GMT). US gold futures for April delivery settled down $5.20 at $1,298.30 an ounce. In other precious metals trading, platinum fell 1.3 percent to $1,424.25 an ounce, and silver was down 0.1 percent to $19.87 an ounce. Palladium was down 2.7 percent at $765.20 an ounce, as Monday's sell-off forced some speculators to close out their bullish bets after the metal's recent rally, traders said.
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