Gold steadied on Monday, paring earlier gains as stock markets and the dollar gained, with moves muted ahead of closely watched policy meetings of U.S. and Japanese central banks this week.
The metal, which is highly sensitive to monetary policy and resulting currency moves, bounced to a 13-month high on Friday after the European Central Bank signalled an end to rate cuts, pushing the euro sharply higher versus the dollar.
It later fell back to post its biggest one-day loss in nearly a month, and struggled to gain traction on Monday as U.S. and European stocks rose and the dollar climbed 0.3 percent versus the euro.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,248.66 an ounce at 1442 GMT, off an earlier high of $1,260.71.
“The expectation is for the market to go through a period of consolidation before moving ahead,” said Ross Norman, chief executive of Sharps Pixley.
The Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, starting on Tuesday, will be watched for clues on the future pace of U.S. rate increases after the central bank hiked rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December.
