Gold prices held steady on Monday, holding on to the gains from the previous session, as political turmoil surrounding US President Donald Trump helped boost the yellow metal's safe-haven appeal. Trump was hit on Friday by embarrassing leaks that a senior adviser was a "person of interest" in a probe of possible collusion with Russia during last year's election campaign and that Trump had boasted to Russian officials of firing the man heading the investigation.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster defended Trump saying the president had raised the firing of the FBI director James Comey, in a meeting with Russia's foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow. "We would advocate abandoning our recent sidelined stance and would buy gold on any significant setback (ie a $10-$15/ounce decline from current levels) as markets increasingly coalesced around the notion of continued paralysis in Washington," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said in a note.
Spot gold was nearly unchanged at $1,254.75 per ounce, as of 0755 GMT, after edging down earlier in the session. US gold futures were up 0.1 percent at $1,254.70 an ounce. Spot gold is expected to retrace to support at $1,245 per ounce, as it failed to break resistance at $1,257, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.