By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, remaining close to a three-month high. Investors are now betting that interest rates will stay low for a while thanks to a disappointing U.S. monthly job report released on Friday.
Gold futures inched up 0.06% to $1,832.35 by 11:58 PM ET (3:58 AM GMT).
The U.S. released its April employment report on Friday, which said that non-farm payrolls rose by 266,000 during the month, well below the 978,000-rise in forecasts prepared by Investing.com. The disappointing figure was attributed to a lack of workers and raw materials, even as an improving COVID-19 situation and government stimulus measures are boosting the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19.
The figure is "nowhere near" what was expected, said Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin on Friday, adding that the Fed will retain its dovish monetary policy before any "substantial further progress."
“This puts less pressure on the Fed to prematurely talk about tapering. They wanted to be patient and hold off on it,” said Larry Adam, chief investment officer at Raymond James in Baltimore, Maryland.
Several U.S. Federal Reserve officials, including Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and U.S. Fed Governor Lael Brainard, will give speeches throughout the week.
Investors now await U.S. inflation data, including the Core Consumer Price Index, which is due later in the week. China will also release inflation data on Tuesday.
In the U.K., Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is due to speak on Wednesday.
In Asia, physical gold demand in India, the world's second-largest bullion consumer, dipped during the previous week due to ever-surging numbers of COVID-19 cases, which hit 403,736 on Sunday.
In other precious metals, palladium was up 0.3%, silver rose 0.8% and platinum gained 0.6%.