• Gold prices edged lower on Monday as Asian stocks gained, although political worries surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to keep supporting appetite for the metal as a so-called safe-haven asset.
Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,252.46 per ounce by 0404 GMT. It rose about 0.7 percent on Friday.
• Asian stocks posted their biggest daily rise in a month on Monday following modest gains in U.S. shares, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gaining 0.9 percent.
• The dollar held near six-month lows against a basket of currencies as investors assessed the impact of the political turmoil in the United States.
• "Some of that (weekend) risk hedging has been unwound in early Asia trading, with gold completely ignoring North Korea's latest missile test," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.
"(But) the geopolitical heat is definitely rising again slowly, and this should ensure that gold remains bids on any material dips in the early part of this week."
• "The outlook on gold remains relatively hazy at this juncture, given ongoing geopolitical concerns amid a likely rate-hike into the next month," OCBC analyst Barnabas Gan said in a note.
"Fundamentally, we remain bearish on the yellow metal, underpinned by two more rate hikes by the U.S. central bank in 2017."
• Spot gold is expected to retrace to support at $1,245 per ounce, as it failed to break resistance at $1,257, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
• Hedge funds and other money managers cut their net long position in COMEX gold for the third week in the week ended May 16, taking it to a two-month low, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed.
• Meanwhile, silver hit its highest since May 1 at $17.13 an ounce earlier in the session, before paring gains.
Reference: Reuters
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