LONDON: Gold rose on Monday, rebounding from 5-1/2 month lows as the dollar shed some of the hefty gains made the previous week on bets that US president-elect Donald Trump's plans for fiscal stimulus would prove inflationary.
Those assumptions have driven Treasury yields higher, denting interest in non-yielding bullion while boosting the US currency. But as the dollar took a breather on Monday, gold clawed back some lost ground.
Lower prices are also tempting some consumers of physical gold back to the market, dealers said.
Spot gold was up 0.6 percent at $1,215.65 an ounce at 1255 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery were up $7.00 an ounce at $1,215.70.
"At the moment we're seeing some consolidation after the big move," ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. "You see the same in euro/dollar. It got close to its previous low, and it ran out of steam. We need some new drivers to push below that level."
"If we have another combination like we had over the last few weeks -- higher equities, higher bond yields, higher dollar -- (gold) will quickly go below $1,200."
The euro rose from an 11-month low against a broadly weaker dollar on Monday after former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was knocked out of the running for next year's presidential elections.
Gold has fallen more than $120 from its post-US election peak on Nov. 9 as US Treasury yields posted their biggest two-week rise in more than five years and the dollar shot higher.
Investors' appetite for gold showed signs of slackening. Holdings of the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, slid more than 19 tonnes last week, its biggest weekly outflow in four months.
Speculators cut their net long position in COMEX gold for the first time in four weeks in the week to Nov. 15, and also reduced it in silver, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.
However, gold premiums in India, the second largest consumer of the precious metal, jumped to two-year highs last week as jewellers ramped up purchases on fears the government might curb imports after withdrawing higher-denomination notes from circulation.
"Low prices have induced some interest in the physical market," ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes said.
Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.6 percent at $16.67 an ounce, while platinum was 0.6 percent higher at $926.24, and palladium was up 0.3 percent at $726.60 an ounce.
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