Gold and silver extended gains on Monday, with the yellow metal trading just above $5,000 per ounce as the dollar dipped, while investors awaited key U.S. jobs and inflation data due later in the week to gauge the interest rate trajectory.
Spot gold rose 1.3% to $5,025.97 per ounce by 0650 GMT after a 4% climb on Friday. U.S. gold futures for April delivery gained 1.4% to $5,048.30 per ounce.
"This could be the very short-term intraday correlation between the dollar and silver as well as gold (driving the metals up)," said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at OANDA.
The U.S. dollar was at its lowest level since February 4, making greenback-priced metals cheaper for overseas buyers. The yen strengthened after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi swept to victory in Sunday's election.
"Bargain-hunting is (also) pushing gold back above the $5,000 level," said KCM chief analyst Tim Waterer.
Investors await monthly reports on employment and consumer prices this week, and expect at least two 25-basis-point rate cuts in 2026, with the first one expected in June. Non-yielding bullion tends to do well in low-interest-rate environments.
"Any softness in the jobs data could help gold's rebound efforts. We are not expecting a rate cut from the Fed until mid-year, unless the jobs data really starts to drop off a cliff," Waterer said.
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said on Friday she thinks one or two more interest rate cuts may be needed to counteract weakness in the labour market.
Spot silver climbed 4.7% to $81.55 per ounce after a near 10% gain in the previous session. It hit an all-time high of $121.64 on January 29.
"Unless silver is able to clear above that key resistance at $92.24, I'm not so convinced in terms of a probability perspective of a medium uptrend," Wong said.
Spot platinum edged 0.2% higher to $2,099.15 per ounce, while palladium gained 1.3% to $1,728.0. - Reuters
