Gold recouped some of the previous session's hefty losses on Monday as the dollar steadied and uncertainty over a US tax reform plan stoked risk aversion, pulling equities from their recent record highs. However, prices remained hemmed in a narrow range as investors awaited more clues on the path of US interest rates.
Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,278.31 an ounce at 1440 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery were up $4.20 an ounce at $1,278.40. Stock markets and the US dollar are the major drivers of gold prices today, Afshin Nabavi, head of MKS said. "But as you can see, gold is going nowhere," he said.
The metal has remained broadly within $15 an ounce of its 100-day moving average, currently at $1,277 an ounce, for most of the last month. The metal fell 0.7 percent on Friday in its biggest one-day drop since Oct. 26, weighed down by a rise in US Treasury bond yields. Yields rose, steepening the yield curve, as traders closed out some curve-flattener positions.
While the increase in yields supported the dollar early on Monday, it later pared gains. Stock markets also took a step down as uncertainty over a US tax reform deal pushed them further away from recent record highs. The head of the House of Representatives' tax-writing committee said on Sunday he would not accept elimination of a federal deduction for state and local taxes, opposing a proposal from Senate Republicans that would hike taxes for some middle class Americans.
The metal has been supported this year by geopolitical risks such as the North Korea's nuclear ambitions, but a range of headwinds, from dollar strength to expectations for rising US rates, have kept it pinned in a range. "There is a bit of safe-haven demand still supporting prices, but no new additional demand coming in, which means that prices aren't really moving," Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini said. "Geopolitical risks have been substantially higher in the second half of the year ... and there have been record highs in US equities, (which are) probably starting to make some investors nervous."
"I think some movement will come closer to the next Federal Reserve meeting in December," she added. "Most markets expect a rate hike ... that could be what prompts prices higher or lower, depending on what happens." Gold is highly sensitive to rising US interest rates, as these increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced. Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.4 percent at $16.97 an ounce. Platinum was up 0.9 percent at $930.74 an ounce and palladium was down 0.4 percent at $990.50 an ounce.