Spot gold rose 0.5 per cent to $1,880.06 per ounce by 0108 GMT, after closing slightly lower in the last session. On Monday, the metal had climbed as much 1.3 per cent after the passage of a near $900 billion US stimulus package.
US gold futures were up 0.1 per cent to $1,882.20.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar dipped, raising gold’s appeal to other currency holders.
The Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted in favour of President Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 Covid-19 relief checks on Monday, sending the measure on to an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Gold, seen as a hedge against inflation, has gained more than 24 per cent this year, largely driven by a raft of stimulus measures unleashed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. The distribution of an initial 200 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech across the European Union will be completed by September.
Hedge funds and money managers raised bullish positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts in the week to Dec. 21, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Monday.
Holdings in SPDR’s Gold Trust , the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.2 per cent to 1,169.86 tonnes on Monday from 1,167.53 tonnes on Thursday.
China’s net gold imports via Hong Kong rebounded about 82 per cent in November after a plunge in October, Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department data showed on Monday.
Silver rose 1.3 per cent to $26.50 an ounce. Platinum climbed 0.7 per cent to $1,038.46 and palladium gained 0.8 per cent to $2,342.79.
