Gold held steady early on Monday as sluggish US retail sales data on Friday lowered expectations of a near-term interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, Reuters reported. Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,337.16 an ounce. The metal rose as much as 1.4% to a high of $1,355.80 on Friday, but ended the day slightly lower on profit-booking. US gold was also nearly flat at $1,342 an ounce. Gold is highly sensitive to rising US interest rates, as the opportunity cost of holding the non-yielding asset increases while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
