WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Despite concerns about recession and falling global equities, gold prices fell on Monday, extending losses from the previous session, as investors continued to take some profits.
The dollar's weakness limited the yellow metal's downside a bit. The dollar index, which dropped to 102.16, recovered to 102.75, cutting its loss to around 0.4%.
Gold futures for August ended down $24.00 or about 0.99% at $2,401.70 an ounce.
Silver futures for August ended lower by $1.1700 or about 4.1% at $27.076 an ounce, while Copper futures for August declined to $3.9830 per pound, losing $0.1010.
Service sector activity in the U.S. turned positive in the month of July, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Monday.
The ISM said its services PMI climbed to 51.4 in July from 48.8 in June, with a reading above 50 indicating growth. Economists had expected the index to rise to 51.0.
The slightly bigger than expected increase by the headline index partly reflected turnarounds by both new orders and business activity.
The new orders index surged to 52.4 in July from 47.3 in June, while the business activity index jumped to 54.5 in July from 49.6 in June.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said on Monday that recent weaker than expected job numbers and other data do not suggest that the U.S. economy is in a recession yet and added that the policy need not be restrictive if the economy is not overheating.
'Jobs numbers came in weaker than expected, but not looking yet like recession,' Goolsbee said to the broadcaster CNBC.
'I do think you want to be forward-looking of where the economy is headed for making the decisions.'
Recent weak U.S. jobs data and manufacturing activity report have raised fears of a recession in the world's largest economy. Investors are now looking for more economic data and comments from Fed officials for clues on the timing and pace of interest-rate cuts.
Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions remain on investors' radar after Iran vowed 'revenge' over killing of Hamas chief and Israeli leaders warned they will extract a 'heavy price' if attacked.
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