Gold rose on Monday ahead of a series of central bank meetings and US President Donald Trump's expected announcement of the next Federal Reserve chair, and amid a slightly weaker US dollar. The metal is facing a slew of potential risks this week, including a two-day US Federal Reserve policy meeting, US payrolls data on Friday and ongoing unrest in Spain's Catalonia region.
"Gold has been more of a safe-haven investment, because of risks involved in diversifying European assets," said John Lawrence, senior metals trader for Heraeus Precious Metals in New York. Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,275.76 an ounce by 2:52 p.m. EDT (1852 GMT), little changed from its late Friday level but well off that session's three-week low of $1,263.35. US gold futures for December delivery settled up $5.90, or 0.5 percent, at $1,277.70 per ounce.
The Bank of Japan and Bank of England also meet this week to consider interest rate policies. Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Tighter US policy also boosts the dollar, in which the metal is priced. Speculators cut their bullish COMEX gold bets by 1,968 contracts to 173,043 contracts, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday, the fewest since early August. Among other precious metals, silver up 0.04 percent at $16.817 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.16 percent at $913 an ounce, while palladium was down 0.1 percent at $964.50 an ounce.