Gold prices drifted lower on Monday, paring early gains, but a weak dollar and lower Treasury yields helped limit the yellow metal’s downside.<\/p>\n
Gold prices moved higher earlier in the day, after U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday that the United States and other Group of Seven leading economies will ban imports of gold from Russia.<\/p>\n
Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan have decided to ban Russian gold imports at a G7 meeting as part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow. <\/p>\n
The dollar index, which dropped to 103.67 by late morning, recovered some lost ground subsequently and was hovering around 103.90 a little while ago, down by about 0.25% from the previous close.<\/p>\n
Gold futures for August ended lower by $5.50 or about 0.3% at $1,824.80 an ounce, after climbing to a high of $1,842.80 an ounce.<\/p>\n
Silver futures for July ended up by $0.043 at $21.168 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $3.7625 per pound, up $0.0220 from the previous close.<\/p>\n
In U.S. economic news, New orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods increased by more than expected in the month of May, according to a report released by the Commerce Department.<\/p>\n
The report showed durable goods orders climbed by 0.7% in May after rising by 0.4% in April. Economists had expected orders to inch up by 0.1%.<\/p>\n
After reporting steep drops in U.S. pending home sales over the past several months, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Monday showing an unexpected rebound in pending home sales in the month of May.<\/p>\n
A report from the National Association of Realtors showed the pending home sales index climbed 0.7% to 99.9 in May after plunging by 4% to a revised 99.2 in April. The increase surprised economists, who had expected pending home sales to tumbled by another 3.7%. <\/p>\n