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Gold futures were trading virtually unchanged on Monday, holding near the highest price in nearly four weeks and remaining above the psychologically important $1,800 threshold.
Bullion prices took a leg higher on Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, at the Jackson Hole central-bankers symposium, revealed that he supports tapering the pace of bond purchases this year, but continued to see high inflation as “transitory.”
The speech was seen as positively supporting continued buying of precious metals. A downturn in the dollar following Powell’s remarks also added to the appeal of dollar-pegged assets, which are comparatively cheaper to overseas buyers as the greenback softens.
The dollar was holding little-changed early Monday, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
“From a technical point of view, gold remains in a positive environment, while the price is playing with the key resistance level of $1,820. A clear surpass of this threshold would open space for new rallies,” wrote Carlo Alberto De Casa, market analyst at Kinesis, in a daily research note.
December gold
GCZ21,
GC00,
was up 40 cents, or less than 0.1%, at $1,819.80 an ounce, following a weekly gain of 2% based on the most-active contract, according to FactSet data. On Friday, gold finished at the highest since Aug. 2, FactSet data show.
Meanwhile, the December silver contract
SIZ21,
SI00,
which is the most active, traded 11 cents or 0.4%, higher at $24.22 an ounce, after futures put in a weekly gain of 4.1%, based on values for the most-active contract’s Friday settlement.
