Gold Down, Loses Lustre but Remains Above $1,800-mark

Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia, retreating from the more-than-five-month high hit during the previous session.

Gold futures fell 0.51% to $1,859.05 by 11:01 PM ET (4:01 AM GMT) but remained firmly above the $1,800 mark. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged down on Monday but remained close to a 16-month high.

Mounting inflationary pressure continues to be on investors radars. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said on Sunday that although he expects higher inflation to continue over the next few months, the Fed should not overreact to elevated inflation as it is likely to be temporary.

Fed Banks of Richmond, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Philadelphia heads Thomas Barkin, Esther George, Raphael Bostic, and Patrick Harker will speak separately on Tuesday. Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida and Fed Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at Asia Economic Policy Conference on Friday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen added that controlling COVID-19 in the U.S. will be crucial to easing inflationary pressures. The U.S. also releases retail sales data on Tuesday.

Across the Atlantic, inflation could fall slower than expected in the Eurozone, partly thanks to continuous supply chain bottlenecks. However, two European Central Bank policymakers warned on Friday that the central bank must not overreact by removing stimulus too quickly.

Although the Bank of England is set to become the first key bank to hike interest rates, whether the hike will come in December or in early 2022 has split opinion, according to a Reuters poll.

In other precious metals, silver tumbled 1.1%, platinum was down 0.6% and palladium fell 0.9%.