Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
Gold futures wobbled between narrow gains and losses early Monday, even as a popular gauge for the dollar slipped, putting the buck on track for its fourth down session in a row.
In recent trading, June gold fell $1.90, or 0.1%, to $1,318.70 an ounce. It was positive earlier in the day. Gold futures have held below Thursday’s settlement at $1,322.30, which marked a recent peak, the highest finish for a most-active contract since April 27. Gold futures logged a roughly 0.5% rise last week, however, the first weekly climb in about a month.
The dollar is up 0.6% so far in May, trimming its drop over the past 12 months to about 7%. A stronger U.S. currency makes dollar-denominated gold dearer for holders of other currencies and its relative strength has helped to limit gold’s move even as worries over Iran, North Korea and trade with China rattle markets. A time of geopolitical uncertainty on at least three fronts might typically send haven gold surging.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index — which measures the greenback against a half-dozen counterparts — fell 92.367 Monday, down from 92.509 late Friday in New York. The buck suffered its first weekly decline through Friday after three consecutive weekly gains as relatively subdued inflation data stirred doubt over market expectations for four and not three interest-rate hikes in the U.S. this year.
Even an expected quarter-point rate rise as soon as next month, as Fed watchers are expecting, which would typically be a gold-negative event, may not be enough to shake the metal from the relatively tight $1,300 to $1,350 range it has been confined to this year, analysts have said.
“Both gold and silver put up a fight against the strong dollar threat in the week to May 8, Commitments of Traders data just out showed, noted Ole Hansen, commodities analyst at Saxo Bank. “Both managed to hold onto key support at $1300/oz and $16/oz, respectively,” he said in a tweet.
In other metals trading, July silver fell less than penny to $16.655 an ounce, down 0.6% Monday, after a gain of about 1.4% for last week.
July copper fell 0.8% to $3.0865 a pound. July platinum slipped less than 0.1% to $925.10 an ounce, while June palladium rose 0.6% to $991.30 an ounce.
In ETF action, the SPDR Gold Shares rose 0.1%, while the iShares Silver Trust shed less than 0.1%. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners rose 0.1%. All three ETFs ended last week higher.