Gold dips on stronger dollar, US-China trade deal hopes

Gold prices fell on Monday, as a stronger dollar and signs of easing U.S.-China trade tensions weighed on the safe-haven metal, while investors awaited major central bank meetings due later this week for monetary policy cues.

Spot gold was down 0.7% at $4,082.77 per ounce, as of 0158 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery lost 1% to $4,095.80.

The U.S. dollar rose to a more than two-week high against the yen, making gold more expensive for other currency holders.

On Sunday, top Chinese and U.S. economic officials hashed out the framework of a trade deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to decide on later this week.

“This potential trade deal between the U.S. and China really came out of the blue and has been a positive surprise for the markets broadly. Obviously, the flip side of that is the developments have been negative for gold,” said Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda.

“A lot of the heat has come out of the market now and sentiment is neutralising. The reason gold is finding so much support is the prospect of loose fiscal and monetary policy going forward. Should that remain the case, gold’s uptrend should hold.”

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its meeting on Wednesday, a view supported by a softer-than-expected inflation report on Friday.

With that rate cut already factored in, markets are looking ahead to any forward-looking comment from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Non-yielding gold tends to benefit in a low interest rate environment.

SPDR Gold Trust , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.52% to 1,046.93 metric tons on Friday from 1,052.37 tons on Thursday.

Elsewhere, spot silver fell 0.3% to $48.42 per ounce, platinum rose 0.1% to $1,607.24 and palladium eased 0.2% to $1,426.06.