Gold dipped in Asia on Monday after a surprise upbeat reading in the China Caixin PMI in June.
Gold for August delivery fell 0.33% to $1,238.17 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Caixin's China manufacturing PMI for June beat expectations, offering hope the world's second-largest economy continues to defy expectations for a slowdown.
The private survey came in at 50.4, marking a three-month high. It was up from May's 49.6, which was an 11-month low, and beat a Reuters poll forecast for 49.5.
Last week, gold prices were lower at the close on Friday and posted their first weekly decline since March as a rise in global bond yields curbed investor demand for the precious metal.
The precious metal still ended the first half of the year with a gain of 8%, boosted by a decline in the dollar to its lows of the year.
Gold prices came under pressure amid indications that several major central banks around the world are getting ready to join the Federal Reserve in tightening monetary policy.
Investor expectations mounted for tighter monetary policy across the globe after the heads of the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada adopted a more hawkish view on monetary policy.
Hawkish signals from foreign central banks contrasted with doubts over whether the Federal Reserve will be able to hike rates again this year given a recent batch of weak U.S. economic data and growing skepticism that the Trump administration will be able to deliver on its pro-growth agenda.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields and German 10-year government bond yields hit five-week highs and the euro hit 14-month peaks as investors assessed the likelihood that the ECB could soon start to unwind its quantitative easing program.
Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, but weakness in the dollar in which it is priced, has been offsetting the impact of higher yields.
Higher yields tend to increase the opportunity cost of purchasing commodities that don’t bear a yield.
In the week ahead, investors will be focusing on Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s latest meeting for fresh cues on the timing of the next U.S. rate hike. Friday’s U.S. jobs report for June will also be closely watched.
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