Gold Climbs Towards $900, Monday, June 02, 2008 2:35:24 PM

Gold prices closed moderately higher on Monday after topping the $900 mark earlier in the session. August-stamped gold futures ended the session at $897 an ounce, up $5.50 on the session. The metal touched as high as $901.20 in the mid-morning.

The precious metal added to its gains from Friday, when it added $9.80 on the session. The metal moved further away from a multi-week low of $873.00, reached last week. For the month of May, gold closed higher by 2.5% or $22.10 an ounce. Last week, the precious metal dropped $39.10, after climbing sharply in the previous week.

The metal dropped to its lowest close in more than two weeks on Thursday, pushed lower by a stronger dollar. The greenback was mixed against other major currencies Monday morning in New York. The buck moved higher versus the sterling while coming under a bit of pressure versus the yen. The dollar was little changed against the euro.

The ISM said its index of activity in the manufacturing sector rose to 49.6 in May from 48.6 in April, although a reading below 50 indicates a contraction in the sector. Economists had been expecting the index to edge down to about 48.5.

Also Monday morning, a Department of Commerce report showed that construction spending fell 0.4 percent in April following a revised 0.6 percent decrease in March. Economists had expected spending to fall 0.6 percent compared to the 1.1 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.

Oil was slightly higher on Monday afternoon amid further volatile trading. Light sweet crude for July delivery moved to $127.78 per barrel, up $43 cents on the session. Crude touched as low as $125.22 in electronic movement but later rallied to as high as $129.18.