Gold Closes Modestly Higher But Well Off Best Levels

(RTTNews) - Mirroring the performance seen during last Friday's session, the price of gold moved sharply higher in early trading on Monday before giving back ground over the course of the day.

After surging as much as 1.1 percent to a high of $4,349.20 an ounce, gold for December delivery pulled back well off its best levels but still closed up $6.60 or 0.2 percent at $4,306.70.

Despite pulling back well off its highs, the price of gold still ended the day at its highest closing level in almost two months.

Gold initially benefitted from a decrease in the value of the U.S. dollar, but the greenback has shown a notable rebound as the day progressed. The U.S. dollar index is currently down just 0.02 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 98.38.

The rebound by the dollar and the subsequent pullback by gold comes as traders look ahead to the release of some key U.S. economic data in the coming days.

The monthly jobs report for November along with a report on retail sales in October are due to be released on Tuesday, while a report on consumer price inflation in November is scheduled to be released on Thursday.

The data could impact the outlook for interest rates following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement last Wednesday.

While the Fed cut rates by another quarter point, as widely expected, officials' projections showed significant differences of opinion about further rate cuts.