Gold scores biggest monthly gain since February

GoldGold futures on Monday settled with their biggest monthly gain since February, as traders awaited the market’s next likely catalysts, which will likely come in the form of monthly U.S. employment data and the European Central Bank meeting later this week.

Prices for the yellow metal, tracking the most-active contracts, saw gains of around 6.1% for the month and 3% for the quarter.

It’s unlikely that traders will take any large bets ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payroll data due out on Thursday, said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. “It is the most important data on earth, and it can cause a big fluctuation for gold and especially given the GDP data print last week.”