The price of gold rose early on Monday, partly lifted by steady flows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a dip in the dollar after touching seven-month highs. Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,255.60 an ounce by 2:30 pm EDT (1830 GMT), having fallen nearly 0.6 percent on Friday to a one-week low of $1,247.01. US gold futures settled up 0.1 percent at $1,256.6 per ounce.
"Supporting the price are moderate but continuous ETF inflows since the beginning of the month. The rise so far this month is more than for all of last month," said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann in Frankfurt. Holdings of the largest gold-backed ETF, New York's SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.40 percent on Friday from Thursday. Total ETF gold holdings have gained 679,335 ounces so far this month to 57.35 million ounces, according to Reuters data.
Spot gold, which has shed about 7 percent over the past three weeks, is expected to stabilise after many speculators ditched long positions, Briesemann added. Also supporting the price was a retreat in the dollar index from a seven-month peak touched earlier as investors evaluated whether the Federal Reserve will let inflation run above target before raising interest rates. "It's mainly dollar weakness that's putting a little bit of a bid under the market," said Phillips Streible, senior commodities broker for RJO Futures in Chicago.
Major stock markets around the world fell, and US and European bond yields slipped off four-month highs amid uncertainty over the health of the global economy. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said on Monday the US economy may face longer and deeper recessions in the future if interest rates remain stuck at current low levels, mapping out a world in which low growth hamstrings central banks from effective recession-fighting. Among other precious metals, spot platinum was up 0.19 percent at $934 an ounce, after dropping to a 7-1/2-month low at $923.
Investec analyst Hunter Hillcoat said in a note that platinum prices should rise in the short-term along with gold due to a flight to safety. "The fundamentals of both platinum and palladium markets are, however, not indicating a rapid or strong enough recovery in price during our medium-term forecast period, especially while off-market stocks can be mobilised to cover the modest market deficits we expect," he said. Silver added 0.35 percent to $17.44, while palladium dropped 1 percent to $637, after hitting a near three-month low of $629.22 in the previous session.