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* Gold prices moved higher on Monday, prices ended up by $22.30 or about 1.3% at $1,806.30 an ounce, the highest settlement since August 5 pushing the most active gold futures contracts to a firm close at a near 3-week high, as the dollar shed ground.

* The dollar index dropped to 92.99, losing more than 0.5%, amid increased risk appetite. Investors also reacted to Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan's comments on Friday that he might reconsider the need for an early start to tapering if the virus harms the economy.

* In economic news, Eurozone private sector logged one of the strongest growth seen over the past two decades in August as the further reopening of the economy underpinned expansion in the services activity, flash survey results from IHS Markit showed.

* The metals were helped along by concern about the geopolitical fallout from events in Afghanistan, a sharp global increase in Delta variant cases, and a global surge in the cost of living.

* Recent data from the UK and Japan outlined the Delta variant’s economic impact, with soaring infections having hammered equity markets last week, boosting the allure of safe-haven assets. A spike in COVID-19 cases also prompted the Fed to schedule its annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Aug. 27 virtually, with all eyes on Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech on the economic outlook and any hints on the tapering timeline.

* Goldman Sachs said in a note gold would continue to trade “moderately higher” on a weaker dollar and demand recovery in emerging markets. “For gold to move materially higher though, there has to be a general risk-off event which will trigger demand for defensive inflation hedges such as the return of inflation worries,” they said

* Markets cheer the renewed covid vaccine optimism after the FDA on Monday granted full approval to Pfizer/ BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first in the US to win the coveted designation. The vaccine approval alleviated the tensions around the Delta variant contagion.

* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.5% to 1,006.66 tonnes on Monday from 1,011.61 tonnes on Friday their lowest since April 2020.

* Gold exchange traded funds witnessed a pullout of over Rs 61 crore in July as investors diverted their money to equity and debt funds that generated attractive returns. Despite the negative flows in the category, the number of folios went up to 19.13 lakh in July from 18.32 lakh in the preceding month, data with Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed.

* Jewellers’ token strike partially successful : The nationwide token strike called by jewellers on Monday was partially successful as large and corporate jewellers stayed away by opening their showrooms and carrying out business as usual. However, jewellers from the MSME category responded overwhelmingly to the call of National Task Force on Hallmarking to protest against what they called arbitrarily implemented HUID (hallmarking unique ID) in the implementation of mandatory hallmarking process in the country by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

* Traders looked ahead to the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium, scheduled to take place virtually on Friday. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the symposium is likely to provide clues about when the central bank will start tapering its asset buying program

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