By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, hitting a two-month high. A dollar on the retreat also gave the yellow metal a boost.
Gold futures edged up 0.18% to $1,820.10 by 11:36 PM ET (3:36 AM GMT). They remained above the $1,800-mark after hitting their highest level since Sep. 7 earlier in the session. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched down on Monday.
Investors digested Friday’s U.S. job report, which showed that non-farm payrolls increased by a better-than-expected 531,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, in October.
“There is no question” that the U.S. labor market is tight, U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Esther George said on Friday. George will also be looking carefully at how wage pressures and inflation expectations unfold as she tries to gauge how close the economy is to the Fed’s goal of full employment, she added.
On the same day, the U.S. Congress passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to repair the nation’s airports, roads, and bridges.
In Asia Pacific, Chinese trade data released on Sunday showed that exports grew 27.1% year-on-year in October. Imports grew 20.6% year-on-year and the trade balance stood at $84.54 billion.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan sees the need for ultra-easy monetary policy as inflation is rising only modestly and wage growth remains feeble, it said on Monday in a summary of opinions from its October meeting.
Physical gold demand in India, one of the largest consumers, during the festival season last week.
In other precious metals, silver was up 0.3%, platinum edged up 0.2% and palladium gained 0.5%.