: Gold futures stretch gains into a second straight session

Gold futures finished higher on Monday, stretching their gains into a second consecutive session. The precious metal has seen prices climb, supported by Friday’s “mixed” U.S. labor markets data that put the U.S. dollar under some selling pressure, said analysts at ICICI Bank. The U.S. economy gained a surprisingly strong 261,000 jobs in October, but the unemployment rate rose to 3.7% from 3.5%, government data showed. Analysts at ICICI Bank said they expected gold prices to continue to trade between $1,600 and $1,700 in the near term, before the U.S. consumer price index report due out Thursday. Gold for December delivery GCZ22 rose $3.90, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,680.50 an ounce on Comex.

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