On Monday, gold is trading lower, retracing from a weekly high amid the broad-based strength of the US dollar. Amid risk aversion, market participants prefer the US currency to gold as they are stoking fears about rampant inflation and a slowdown in the US economic growth.
At the moment of writing this article, the yellow metal slipped 0.59% to trade at $1,749.9 a troy ounce. Nevertheless, in the early session on Monday, gold managed to reach $1,765.5, the highest level since the beginning of September. The US dollar index is trading steadily at highs, extending strength after a fall in the middle of the last week. Back last week, the precious metal took advantage of the greenback's temporary weakness.
Another factor of support for gold on Monday morning was data on US personal income and spending released on Friday. In the latest report, US income and spending rose 0.2% and 0.8% accordingly in August from a month ago. The data provided gold with some support as the precious metal is commonly viewed as a cushion from high inflationary pressure.
As a result, gold futures for December opened on Monday 0.14% up at $1,760.8 per troy ounce. December silver futures climbed 0.38% to trade at $22.6 per troy ounce. On the other hand, palladium dropped 0.48% to trade at $1,909.6. Platinum opened today 1.91% down at $953.4.
The yellow metal gains confidence from investors' worries about the adverse impact of China's heavily indebted developer Evergrande on financial markets.
Last week, traders got to know that the EU CPI surged 3.4% in September in annual terms.
The highlight of the week is the government nonfarm payrolls for September which are due on Friday. This is a high-impact report for the commodity market.