Investing.com - Gold prices rose to a two-week high on Monday, as traders reassessed their expectations for how quickly the Federal Reserve will roll back its stimulus program following the release of mixed U.S. employment data.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery hit USD1,274.30 a troy ounce, the most since January 27, before trimming gains to trade at USD1,273.40 an ounce during European morning hours, up 0.8%.
Gold futures ended Friday’s session up 0.45% to settle at USD1,262.90 a troy ounce.
Prices were likely to find support at USD1,252.20 a troy ounce, the low from February 5 and resistance at USD1,279.20, the high from January 26.
Meanwhile, silver for March delivery traded at USD20.11 a troy ounce, up 0.85%. The March contract settled 0.04% higher on Friday to end at USD19.93 an ounce.
Data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 113,000 jobs in January, well below expectations for jobs growth of 185,000, after December's lackluster gain of 75,000 jobs.
It was the weakest two-month stretch of job creation in three years as inclement weather contributed to a slowdown in hiring.
Yet the report also showed that the number of people participating in the labor force edged up to 63% from a 30-year low of 62.8% last month, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked down to a five year low 6.6% from 6.7% in December.
Market players now looked ahead to Congressional testimony from new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later in the week for clues regarding the future of course of U.S. monetary policy.
The Fed tapered its monthly asset purchase program by another USD10 billion to USD65 billion a month at its last policy meeting.
Data from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission released Friday showed that hedge funds and money managers reduced their bullish bets in gold futures in the week ending February 4.
Net longs totaled 59,408 contracts, compared to 60,672 in the preceding week.
Elsewhere on the Comex, copper futures for March delivery inched up 0.25% to trade at USD3.244 a pound.