Gold prices reversed course and rose on Monday (4/28) as bargain hunting began, while market focus turned to developments in the U.S.-China trade war and a slew of economic data.

Spot gold was up 0.4% at $3,332.59 an ounce by 12:09 p.m. ET (1609 GMT) after falling as much as 1.8% earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures were up 1.4% at $3,344.0.

"We are starting to see the first signs of selling exhaustion," said TD Securities commodity strategist Daniel Ghali, adding that downside risks to gold are limited.

"Western investors, particularly discretionary or macro funds, have been completely out of position in the latter stages of gold's rally and as a result, there has been limited selling activity and gold prices have moved higher to reflect that." Bullion, a traditional hedge against political and financial instability, rose to an all-time high of $3,500.05/oz last week on heightened uncertainty.

US President Donald Trump said progress was being made with China. However, Beijing has denied that trade talks are underway and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent failed on Sunday to back up Trump's assertion that tariff talks with China were underway.

"Until we see a clear pattern of lower highs, lower lows and a strong trade agreement rather than more political bluster from the Trump administration, the prospect of new highs for gold cannot be ignored," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com.

The risk is high that the global economy will slip into recession this year, according to a majority of economists polled by Reuters.

Data due this week includes the US jobs report on Tuesday, Personal Consumption Expenditures on Wednesday and the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. Market participants will be watching these to gauge the impact of the latest tariffs on the US economy.

Spot silver fell 0.1% to $33.05 an ounce, platinum rose 1.2% to $983.0 and palladium was steady at $948.31. (Newsmaker23)

Source: Reuters