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Gold prices on Monday were trading lower as the dollar strengthened to start the week, amid concerns about tensions between the U.S. and China. Investors also watched COVID-19 infections as businesses reopen domestically and elsewhere in the world.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to issue a warning that hackers tied to the Chinese government are attempting to steal data from U.S. researchers developing a coronavirus vaccine, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The charge comes as Sino-American tensions have flared up lately, with President Trump on Friday saying during a Fox News interview that he was unsure if he should cancel a partial trade deal between Washington and Beijing forged in January.
Gold should prosper in that environment but a stronger dollar and a solid run-up by gold toward a psychologically important level at around $1,700 was creating some friction for the yellow metal.
On Comex, June gold GCM20, -0.39% fell $5.50, or 0.3%, at $1,708.40 an ounce, after the most-active contract for gold saw a weekly rise of almost 0.8% put in on Friday.
“Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close in June futures above solid resistance at the April high of $1,788.80,” wrote Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com, in a Monday research note.
“Technically, the gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage amid an uptrend on the daily bar chart,” he said. “Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $1,666.20,” he added.
Meanwhile, July silver SIN20, +0.04% was down 5 cents, or 0.4%, at $15.725 an ounce, following a weekly rally of nearly 6% for silver futures, according to FactSet data.
A measure of the dollar against a half-dozen currency rivals was up 0.4% at 100.11 on Monday, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.21%.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank tweaked the wording of its first-quarter monetary policy report, with analysts suggesting the People’s Bank of China would aim to further stimulate the economy. The second-largest economy has been trying to restart its economy for weeks, after the viral pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China.
