Gold steadies in New York

Gold steadied on Monday, bouncing up from session lows as oil prices rallied and the US dollar fell, after bullion felt earlier pressure on indications the Federal Reserve may still raise interest rates this year, despite recent market turmoil. Spot gold was up 0.04 percent to $1,134 an ounce at 3:20 pm EDT (1920 GMT), and was on track to close August up 3.5 percent, the strongest monthly gain since January after worries over a slowing Chinese economy sparked a wave of short-covering earlier this month. This lifted prices above 5-1/2-year lows reached in July,
US gold futures for December delivery settled down 0.1 percent at $1,132.50. "It was oil that sparked the short-covering (in gold)," said George Gero, precious metals strategist for RBC Capital Markets in New York. "That meant that the funds that had shorts in crude probably also had shorts in gold, as they normally do." Spot palladium rose for the third straight session, up 2.2 percent to $596.50. Silver rose 0.3 percent to $14.63 an ounce, while platinum dropped 1.1 percent to $1,004.75.