By Saumya Vaishampayan and Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures erased gains on Monday amid strength in the U.S. dollar and easing worries over the Chinese economy.
Gold for August delivery GCQ3 +0.01% traded nearly unchanged at $1,277.70 an ounce on Monday, following its 5.4% gain last week on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
A stronger U.S. dollar hindered gold’s advance, with the ICE dollar index DXY +0.52% rising to 83.447 from 82.997 late Friday. A rise in the greenback tends to hurt gold and other dollar-denominated commodities, as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.
September silver SIU3 -0.26% fell 11 cents at $19.68 an ounce.
September copper HGU3 -0.59% shed 1 cent a pound, or 0.6%, to $3.14. Copper had lost ground late last week after Chinese state media quoted Finance Minister Lou Jiwei as saying his nation’s growth would likely slow to 7% this year, missing the government’s 7.5% target.
However, the state-run Xinhua news agency later corrected the report to say Lou forecast 7.5% growth, and second-quarter gross domestic product data released Monday showed 7.5% growth, boosting some assets.
“There was a minor sense of relief attached to the Chinese GDP result today, despite the result being in line with expectations. Some market participants had been bracing for a potentially worse result than the 7.5% growth rate, particularly given the negative rumblings over Chinese growth in recent times,” wrote CMC Markets senior trader Tim Waterer following the data release.
In other metals action, platinum for October delivery PLV3 +0.38% added $7.50 or 0.5% to $1,414.40 an ounce, while September palladium PAU3 +0.12% climbed $1.80 to $724.70 an ounce.
