Investing.com - Gold held higher in Asia on Monday on a weaker dollar and after data in China that showed strong retail sales and industrial production.
Gold for August delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 0.12% to $1,277.45 a troy ounce.
Silver futures for July delivery dropped 0.98% to $17.160 a troy ounce.
Also on the Comex, copper futures for July delivery jumped 1.53% to $2.058 a pound after data that included industrial production in top copper importer China.
In China, fixed asset investment in May rose 9.6%, below the 10.5% gain expected year-on-year. As well, industrial production for May seen gained 6.0%, a tad better than the 5.9% seen year-on-year and retail sales jumped 10%, but still below the 10.1% year-on- year expected.
Markets in Australia are shut for a holiday.
Investors will turn attention to Wednesday’s monetary policy announcement by the Fed for clues on the future direction of U.S. interest rates as well as monetary policy meetings in Japan, Switzerland and the U.K.
Last week, gold prices finished the week with impressive gains amid fading expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in the next couple of months.
The CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) Fed Watch tool indicated on Friday that there is a 1.9% chance the FOMC will raise rates in its June meeting this week. The probability of at least one rate hike in 2016 stood at 58.8%.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said earlier this week that the central bank plans to raise interest rate hikes, but gave no indication on the timing of the rate hikes.
Prices of the precious metal are up nearly 5% so far in June, after sliding more than 6% a month earlier, as market players reacted to shifting views on the timing of the next U.S. rate hike.