Gold setlles below $1200 an ounce

Rising dollar pressures precious metals

Bullion prices ended lower at Comex on Monday, 13 April 2015. Gold futures settled back below $1,200 an ounce taking a cue from a rising dollar as investors weigh the timing of an interest-rate increase by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Gold futures for June delivery fell $5.30, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,199.30 an ounce on Comex following a 0.3% gain last week.

May silver fell 9.1 cents, or 0.6%, to $16.291 an ounce.

Expectations for a Fed rate hike later this summer are keeping a lid on gold futures. A move toward higher rates is seen supporting the dollar and pushing up bond yields. Higher U.S. bond yields can be a negative for gold, since the commodity offers no yield.

For now, some strength in the U.S. dollar put some pressure on dollar-denominated gold prices. The greenback edged up Monday after weak data from China and Japan. Meantime, the Euro currency is slumping again and is moving in on its recent 12-year low. These currency movements are bearish for the raw commodity sector, including the precious metals, as most raw commodities are priced in U.S. dollars on the world markets. The stronger greenback makes those commodities more expensive to purchase with other world currencies.

The other key outside market saw crude oil prices modestly higher on Monday. Trading has turned choppy in crude oil recently.

In overnight news, there was downbeat economic news coming out of China Monday, as its exports were down 15% in March, while its imports declined by 12.7%, year-on-year. This news is a bearish underlying factor for the raw commodity markets, as the world's largest population and second-largest economy is major raw commodity consumer and importer. Traders and investors will be closely examining China's gross domestic product report for the first quarter, due out later this week.

There was no major U.S. economic data due for release Monday.

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