Investing.com - Gold retained its resilience on Monday heading into the New Year’s Eve as investors continued to seek out the yellow metal as a hedge to falling equities and the dollar.
gold futures for February delivery on New York’s COMEX settled up 50 cents, or 0.03%, at $1,518.60 per ounce. On Friday, it hit a two-month high of $1,519.90.
Spot gold, which tracks live trades in bullion, was up $5.03, or 0.3%, at $1,515.45 by 1:57 PM ET (18:57 GMT) after a 11-week high of $1,516.19 earlier.
The dollar fell to a three-week low on Monday as more investors withdrew from the currency that had become an indirect bet against the U.S.-China trade war. News report on Monday indicated that China’s Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington this week to likely sign a phase one trade deal with the United States.
“Longer term, it’s steadier gold that we’re seeing, with more haven buyers popping up everywhere,” said George Gero, precious metals analyst at RBC Wealth Management in New York.
“While there are lesser jewelry buyers of late in India, there are more U.S. jewelry buyers appearing,” Gero added. “More haven buyers are also coming out of Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil and the euro zone.”
Some analysts think gold is having late momentum in the year because of investors seeking the yellow metal as a hedge to the overflowing risks on Wall Street, where stocks had been hitting one record high after another. Bullion and gold futures have tacked on as much as $50 an ounce over the past three weeks to reclaim the bullish $1,500 perch and progress from there, despite no appreciable change in fundamentals.
Stocks on Wall Street tumbled on Monday, ending a streak of record highs ahead of the New Year’s Eve, as investors took profit on news of the imminent U.S.-China signing.