Gold rebounds as bargain-hunting kicks in

Gold prices reversed course to edge higher on Monday as bargain-hunting kicked in, while market focus was on US-China tradedevelopments and a slew of economic data.

Spot gold was up 0.5% at USD 3,335.30 an ounce as of 2:06 p.m. ET (1806 GMT) after falling as much as 1.8% earlier in the session. US gold futures settled 1.5% higher at USD 3,347.7.

“We’re starting to see the first signs of selling exhaustion,” TD Securities commodity strategist Daniel Ghali said, adding that the downside risk in gold is extremely limited.

“Western investors, particularly discretionary traders or macro funds, have been completely under-positioned in this last leg of gold’s rally, and as a result of that, there’s limited amount of selling activity and gold prices are drifting higher to reflect that.”

Bullion, a traditional hedge against political and financial instability, rose to an all-time high of USD 3,500.05/oz last week due to elevated uncertainties.

US President Donald Trump says progress has been made with China. However, Beijing has denied that trade talks are occurring, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent failed on Sunday to back Trump’s assertion that tariff talks with China were underway.

“Until we witness clear patterns of lower highs, lower lows, and firm trade agreements rather than more political bluster from the Trump administration, the prospect of fresh highs for gold cannot be dismissed,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com

The risk is high that the global economy will slip into recession this year, according to a majority of economists in a Reuters poll.

Data due this week includes the US job openings report on Tuesday, Personal Consumption Expenditures on Wednesday, and the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. Market participants will scan these to gauge the impact of the latest tariffs on the US economy.

Spot silver eased 0.1% to USD 33.03 per ounce, platinum gained 1.5% to USD 986.05 and palladium fell 0.4% USD 947.27.

(Reporting by Anjana Anil, Ishaan Arora, and Anmol Choubey in Bengaluru; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Matthew Lewis, and Shailesh Kuber)