Gold prices traded near their highest level in around seven weeks on Monday, as market players looked ahead to a busy week of economic data, including the monthly US jobs report.
Besides the nonfarm payrolls data, this week’s calendar also features US reports on personal income and spending, which include the personal consumption expenditures inflation data, the Fed’s preferred metric for inflation, Seeking Alpha reported.
Data on manufacturing and service sector growth, auto sales, factory orders and monthly trade figures are also on the agenda.
Comex gold futures were at $1,266.80 a troy ounce, down $1.60, or about 0.1%. It touched its highest since June 14 at $1,270.80 earlier in the session.
Prices logged a gain of 1.1% last week, its third such rise in a row, as fading expectations for the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates again later this year combined with deepening political turmoil in the White House sent the dollar to 13-month lows.
Dollar weakness usually benefits gold, as it boosts the metal’s appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver futures inched up 1.6 cents, or roughly 0.1%, to $16.71 a troy ounce.
Among other precious metals, platinum was up 0.3% at $938.85, while palladium added 0.8% to $887.08 an ounce.
Meanwhile, copper futures rallied to their highest level in more than two years after data showed that growth in China’s manufacturing sector cooled slightly in July, but a government-led infrastructure push kept construction humming.
China is the world’s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption last year. Construction and manufacturing are both key drivers of demand.
The price of copper rose 0.87% to $6,400.50 a ton in midmorning trade in London. Copper’s Monday gains brought the metal’s on-the-week advance to more than 6%, with the Chinese purchasing-managers’ index adding to the multiple factors which led to last week’s sharp price increase.
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