Gold dips after post-CPI rally, copper hit by China GDP jitters

investing.com:

Investing.com-- Gold prices retreated from one-month highs on Monday, as traders locked in some profits after two weeks of gains, while copper prices fell amid uncertainty over a slew of major Chinese economic readings.

Metal prices saw strong gains over the past two weeks as the dollar slumped to 15-month lows, tracking a string of weak U.S. inflation readings. The weak data also spurred increasing bets that the Federal Reserve was close to ending its rate hike cycle for the year.

But gains in gold were also somewhat limited by signs of resilience in the U.S. economy, which in turn weighed on safe haven demand for the yellow metal. Prices have largely stalled after reaching the $1,960 an ounce level last week.

Spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,952.87 an ounce, while gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,957.05 an ounce by 20:29 ET (00:29 GMT). The two instruments surged 1.6% over the past week. 

Among industrial metals, copper prices retreated from recent gains as markets hunkered down ahead of more economic cues from China, the world’s largest copper importer.

Copper futures fell 0.3% to $3.9203 a pound, after rallying nearly 4% in the past week. 

China is set to release second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data later in the day, with markets widely positioning for a slowdown in activity as a post-COVID economic recovery runs out of steam.

The country’s real estate sector- which is also a key source of copper demand- is still struggling with weak sales and laggard activity, while manufacturing has remained in contraction this year.

Still, trade data last week showed that Chinese copper imports remained robust in June, although this was also attributed in part to manufacturers building inventory on weak spot copper prices.

Chines