Gold Gains, Dollar Wobbles as US Shoppers Cut Spending Over Holiday Weekend

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold traded near unchanged in relatively quiet trade and ended near its late session high of $1181.75 with a 0.7% gain on Monday as US traders digested the end of last week's wild action in holiday thinned trade.

The Gold Price in Euros rose to about €787.

Silver dropped as low as $18.09 by 09:30 EST in New York, but then rallied back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended near its late session high of $18.492 with a gain of 1.3%.

Platinum closed at $1435.50, and copper gained over 5 cents to about $3.16.

Gold Mining and silver equities rose over 1% in the first hour of trade before they fell back to unchanged, but then rallied in afternoon trade and ended with slight gains for the day.

Oil rose on geopolitical worries after a racing yacht carrying five UK nationals was stopped by Iranian naval vessels and the sailors held in Iran.

The US Dollar index reversed last week's late fear-inspired gains following the Dubai default. But Treasury bonds ended modestly higher on safe-haven buying due to worries over Iran's nuclear program.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mixed and ended slightly higher as traders digested mixed retail sales reports that showed good traffic over the popular holiday shopping weekend, but also failed to inspire shoppers to spend as much as in years past.

The Chicago PMI Index for Nov. came in well above expectations. Tuesday at 10:00 EST brings US Construction Spending for October, expected down 0.4%; the ISM Index for November, expected at 54.8; and Pending US Home Sales for October, expected down 0.5%.

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