Investing.com - Gold bugs will have to wait until Wednesday to get Jerome Powell's latest ideas on monetary policy. Until then, they could just be trying to move things without rocking the boat.
The most-active December gold contract on COMEX settled down $8, or 0.7%, at 1,222.40 per troy ounce on Monday as the dollar trended higher in the absence of major factors.
"Traders (are) carefully looking at calls prices of $1,235 to $1,250 and puts from below $1,185 to $1,180, all of which, if settled in the money, could become new futures contracts needing margin money," said George Gero, precious metals analyst at RBC Wealth Management in New York.
The dollar index, a contrarian bet to gold, was up 0.13% by 3:38 PM ET (20:38 GMT).
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is due to speak on Wednesday on "The Federal Reserve's Framework for Monitoring Financial Stability" at the New York Economic Club. The central bank will be issuing minutes of its Nov. 7-8 meeting the following day.
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise U.S. interest rates for a fourth time this year at its December meeting, and both of this week's Fed events are expected to be scrutinized closely by investors for cues on gold market direction.
Among other precious metals on COMEX, silver fell 0.1% to $14.36 per ounce.
Palladium, which tumbled 2.4 % on Friday, recovered 1% to $1,123.10 per ounce, while sister metal platinum rose 0.4% to $848.30.
In base metals, COMEX copper shed 0.6% to $2.77 per pound.