Gold prices inched up early Monday as the dollar hovered close to a 3-1/2-week low after U.S. jobs data showed an increase in the unemployment rate and slower wage growth.
Spot gold was 0.2 percent higher at $1,256.85 an ounce at 0055 GMT. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were up 0.1 percent at $1,257.60 an ounce.
The dollar struggled near 3-1/2-week lows against its peers on Monday after U.S. jobs data showed slower-than-expected wages growth.
The U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in June, but steady wage gains pointed to moderate inflation pressures that should keep the Federal Reserve on a path of gradual interest rate increases this year.
British Brexit Secretary David Davis has resigned over the handling of a meeting to hammer out a cabinet agreement for Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union, a source close to the minister said on Monday.
The United States and China exchanged the first salvos in what could become a protracted trade war on Friday, slapping tariffs on $34 billion worth of each others’ goods and giving no sign of willingness to start talks aimed at a reaching a truce.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brushed off North Korean charges that he used “gangster-like” diplomacy in negotiations in Pyongyang, saying on Sunday after meeting his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that he would keep pursuing denuclearization talks with North Korea.
European leaders say they no longer have any illusions about Donald Trump as they welcome the U.S. president at a NATO summit this week, but they fear his “America first” agenda may force a moment of reckoning that works to no-one’s benefit.
Over a third of sovereign investors plan to cut their equity exposure over the next three years after a strong run in 2017, citing trade wars, geopolitics and high valuations as headwinds to performance, a study by asset manager Invesco showed.
Gold was sold at a premium in India this week after a drop in domestic prices boosted demand, while buyers elsewhere in Asia were sidelined, waiting to see how the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China would evolve, traders said.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.15 percent to 802.24 tonnes on Friday.
Source: Reuters
