Gold futures climbed higher on Tuesday, rebounding a bit after five successive days of losses, as global stocks tumbled, triggering some interest in the safe-haven metal.
Concerns about inflation and growth, and a surge in coronavirus cases in China weighed on stocks.
The dollar's strength limited gold's uptick. The dollar index climbed to 102.30, gaining more than 0.5%, amid expectations of a series of sharper rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Gold futures for June moved higher by $8.10 to $1,904.10 an ounce.
Silver futures for May drifted down $0.126 to $23.544 an ounce, while Copper futures for May eased to $4.4410 per pound, down $0.0080 from the previous close.
On the Covid-19 front, Beijing has rolled out mass Covid testing for nearly 20 million residents in most of the city, raising fears about a potential wider lockdown that could crimp growth and earnings.
The Chinese mainland reported 1,908 new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 52 more deaths in the past 24 hours.
On the U.S. economic front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods rebounded in the month of March, climbing by 0.8% in the month, after tumbling by a revised 1.7% in February.
Economists had expected durable goods orders to jump by 1% compared to the 2.2% slump originally reported for the previous month.
A separate report released by the Commerce Department showed new home sales plunged by 8.6% to an annual rate of 763,000 from an upwardly revised rate of 835,000 in February. Economists had expected new home sales to decrease by 0.9% to a rate of 765,000 from the 772,000 originally reported for the previous month.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 107.3 in April from an upwardly revised 107.6 in March. Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to dip to 106.8 from the 107.2 originally reported for the previous month.
