Gold prices briefly touched a 4-month high on Monday as the U.S. dollar remained near a five month low against major currencies, but worries about hotter-than-expected wage growth reported in Friday’s U.S. November employment report pushed up Treasury yields limiting gold’s gains. Price action
Gold prices for February delivery
GC00,
-0.28%
GCG23,
-0.28%
were down $1.10, or 0.1%, to $1,808 per ounce on Comex.
Silver prices for March delivery
SIH23,
-0.80%
were off 4 cents, or 0.2%, at $23.21 per ounce.
Palladium prices for March delivery
PAH23,
+0.52%
advanced $23.90, or 1.3%, to $1,925 per ounce, while platinum prices for January delivery
PLF23,
-0.20%
rose $5.60, or 0.5%, to $1,032 per ounce.
Copper prices for March delivery
HGG23,
+0.42%
gained 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $3.86 per pound.
Market drivers Gold prices have steadily climbed higher over the past month, with the price of the most-active contract topping its 200-day moving average last week for the first time since June.
But Friday’s U.S. jobs data was “a big setback” for the yellow metal, said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA. The issue is that the hotter-than-expected November jobs print, combined with hot wage-growth numbers, reinforced the notion that the Federal Reserve still has a long way to go in its quest to suppress inflation. “We’re now more than four weeks into the recovery rally in gold and a corrective move of some kind may be on the cards,” Erlam said.
…