Investing.com - Gold futures remained steadfastly within striking range of the $1,300 level on Monday as investors fled from risk assets after a slump in China's exports and ahead of an expected defeat for British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal.
The spot price of palladium also traded close to last week's record highs as speculative fervor continued to build in the auto-catalyst metal said to be in severely short supply.
Gold futures for February delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $1.80, or 0.1%, at $1,291.30 a troy ounce. The high for the day was $1,296.25. Gold cracked the $1,300 resistance on Jan. 4, reaching an intraday high of $1,300.40, before falling back.
Spot gold, meanwhile, traded up $4.07, or 0.3%, at $1,291.71 by 2:34 PM ET (19:34 GMT).
In Monday's trade stocks on Wall Street fell, pulling along prices of crude oil, after China’s December exports fell by 4.4 percent from last year, the biggest drop in 2 years. Chinese imports also plunged by 7.6 percent, the biggest drop since 2016. The data reinforced concerns that U.S. tariffs were taking a toll on Chinese goods, and that China’s 2019 growth could be one of the lowest since 1990.
"The Brexit negotiations and the trade talks with China continue to be the headline stories" for gold, said Walter Pehowich, executive vice-president at Dillon Gage Metals in Addison, Texas.
"If the partial U.S. government shutdown continues, I expect it will eventually weigh heavily an equity prices as well, sending more investors over to the gold and bond markets," Pehowich added.
China worries aside, financial markets were spooked by reports that Prime Minister May faced likely defeat in Tuesday's crunch vote on her Brexit deal as she sought to warn opponents to the plan that they risk "letting the British people down".
In the United States, a partial government shutdown entered into a fourth week as President Donald Trump appeared unlikely to "budge even an inch" on his demand that Democrats in Congress approve $5 billion for his border wall plan, CNN reported. Trump told aides and allies that he believes he is winning the battle for public support even as a CNN/SSRS survey on Sunday showed a majority blamed the President for the shutdown.
Spot palladium was up $5, or 0.4%, at $1,325.70 after reaching an intraday high of $1,335.70. Spot palladium hit a record high of $1,341.40 on Jan. 9.
Palladium futures on Comex settled up $5.50, or 0.4%, at $1,278.70.
In other Comex trading,platinum futures were down $12.10, or 1.5%, at $805.90.
Silver futures rose 0.1% to $15.68.
In base metals, copper futures fell 1.2% to $2.63 per pound.