LONDON: Gold fell more than 1 percent on Monday as the strengthening dollar and a sharper appetite for assets seen as higher risk sparked selling across commodities.
The metal’s failure to break back above $1,300 in the wake of a weaker than expected US jobs report on Friday is also leading some investors to cash in gold gains.
Spot gold was down 1.6 percent at $1,267.20 an ounce at 1324 GMT, erasing the 0.8 percent gain made on Friday after weak non-farm payrolls data.
US gold futures for June also came under pressure, dropping 2 percent to $1,268.90.
Silver was down 2.2 percent at $17.07 an ounce, platinum lost 2.2 percent to $1,051 and palladium dropped by 2.4 percent to $589.25.
Gold snapped four days of losses when the payrolls report showed that the US economy added the fewest jobs in seven months in April, leaving some economists expecting only one interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve this year.
But its failure to capitalize further on the data disappointed some gold bulls, given how far their bets on higher prices had gone.
Gold has rallied 20 percent this year as expectations for a near-term hike by the Federal Reserve faded.
“Positioning has been stubbornly elevated so far this year, and as a result we hold the view that the market is going to continue consolidating within the range that has been established,” UBS analyst Joni Teves said.
“The bounce in the dollar has also contributed to (the pullback), and this period is seasonally slow for gold.”
The metal’s failure to break back above $1,300 in the wake of a weaker than expected US jobs report on Friday is also leading some investors to cash in gold gains.
Spot gold was down 1.6 percent at $1,267.20 an ounce at 1324 GMT, erasing the 0.8 percent gain made on Friday after weak non-farm payrolls data.
US gold futures for June also came under pressure, dropping 2 percent to $1,268.90.
Silver was down 2.2 percent at $17.07 an ounce, platinum lost 2.2 percent to $1,051 and palladium dropped by 2.4 percent to $589.25.
Gold snapped four days of losses when the payrolls report showed that the US economy added the fewest jobs in seven months in April, leaving some economists expecting only one interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve this year.
But its failure to capitalize further on the data disappointed some gold bulls, given how far their bets on higher prices had gone.
Gold has rallied 20 percent this year as expectations for a near-term hike by the Federal Reserve faded.
“Positioning has been stubbornly elevated so far this year, and as a result we hold the view that the market is going to continue consolidating within the range that has been established,” UBS analyst Joni Teves said.
“The bounce in the dollar has also contributed to (the pullback), and this period is seasonally slow for gold.”
