Gold Steady; Euro Zone Moves Eyed

By: Reuters

Gold was steady on Monday, after posting its biggest weekly gain since early September, as investors await concrete steps from European policymakers to tackle the debt crisis ahead of a European Union summit this weekend.

Jose Luis Pelaez | Iconica | Getty Images

Spot gold [XAU=  1681.1899    2.66  (+0.16%)   ]was little changed at $1,679.09 an ounce by 0012 GMT, after rising 2.5 percent in the previous week.

U.S. gold [GCCV1  1683.60    0.60  (+0.04%)   ]edged down 0.1 percent to $1,681.40.

The world's leading economies pressed Europe on Saturday to act decisively to resolve the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis by the European Union summit on Oct. 23.

Money managers, including hedge funds and other large speculators, raised their bullish bets in gold futures and options for only the second time in 10 weeks, as the price of bullion extended a recovery from below $1,600 an ounce.

U.S. stocks scored their first back-to-back weekly gains since early July on Friday, on strong Google [GOOG.O  591.68    32.69  (+5.85%)   ] earnings and as investors kept riding the optimism for a solution to the euro zone's debt crisis.

The euro staged its biggest weekly gains in nine months against the dollar on optimism that European leaders would take bold steps to tackle the debt crisis, but a lack of concrete actions could limit further gains.