Gold Regains Ground Following Recent Weakness

(RTTNews) - After closing lower for five consecutive sessions, the price of gold moved back to the upside during trading on Monday.

Gold for April delivery climbed $7.80 or 0.9 percent to $1,824.90 an ounce, bouncing off its lowest closing level in two months.

The rebound by the price of gold came as the value of the U.S. dollar gave back ground following recent strength.

After reaching its best intraday levels in over a month last Friday, the U.S. dollar index is falling 0.5 percent on the day.

Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders continued to express concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent economic data has led to worries the Federal Reserve will raise rates more than currently anticipated and hold rates at an elevated level for an extended period.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing a sharp pullback in new orders for durable goods in the month of January.

The report said durable goods orders plunged by 4.5 percent in January after surging by a downwardly revised 5.1 percent in December.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 4.0 percent compared to the 5.6 percent spike that had been reported for the previous month.

The steep drop by durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment plummeted by 13.3 percent in January after soaring by 15.8 percent in December.

Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.7 percent in January after falling by 0.4 percent in December. Economists had expected a 0.1 percent uptick.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors released a separate report showing pending home sales in the U.S. spiked by much more than expected in the month of January.

NAR said its pending home sales index soared by 8.1 percent to 82.5 in January after jumping by 1.1 percent to a downwardly revised 76.3 in December.

Economists had expected pending home sales to advance by 1.0 percent compared to the 2.5 percent surge originally reported for the previous month.