Gold prices recovered after a weak start and moved higher on Monday as the dollar shed ground and bond yields dropped.
Gold prices were a bit sluggish early on in the session amid slightly easing fears about a recession following last week's buoyant jobs data and on rising expectations that the central bank might aggressively tighten its monetary policy.
The dollar index dropped to a low of 106.08 before recovering to 106.30, but still trailed its previous closing level by about 0.3%. The yield on long term U.S. 10-year Treasury Note eclined to 2.77%.
Gold futures for December ended higher by $14.00 or about 0.8% at $1,805.20 an ounce.
Silver futures for September ended up by $0.772 at $20.614 an ounce, while Copper futures for September settled at $3.5865 per pound, up $0.0345 from the previous close.
On Friday, the Labor Department's data showed non-farm payroll employment spiked by 528,000 jobs in July after surging by an upwardly revised 398,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to climb by about 250,000 jobs compared to the addition of 372,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The report showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 3.5% July from 3.6% in June. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.
With the unexpected decrease, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since hitting a matching rate in February of 2020, just before Covid-19 lockdowns began to take effect in the U.S.
