By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia, with the yellow metal’s safe-haven status taking a hit as investors turned to the strengthening dollar.
Gold futures edged down 0.14% at $1,729.90 by 12:32 M ET (4:32 AM GMT). The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Monday thanks to the quickening U.S. economic recovery and COVID-19 vaccine rollouts.
On the data front, the U.S. releases its employment report for March, including non-farm payrolls, on Friday.
In Asia, China releases its manufacturing and non-manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) figures later in the week. The Caixin private sector manufacturing PMI is also due within the week ahead, while the Caixin services PMI is due the week after.
Meanwhile, Bank of England’s monetary policy committee members Michael Saunders and Silvana Tenreyro on Friday played down risks of runaway inflation when the U.K. economy recovers from COVID-19. Tenreyro even emphasized that more stimulus measures could be needed yet.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also said on Friday that hedge funds and money managers raised their bullish positions in COMEX gold and cut them in silver contracts in the week to Mar. 23.
In other precious metals, silver fell 0.8% and platinum was down 0.6%, while palladium inched up 0.1%.