Gold dropped by half a percent on Monday, retreating from last week`s two-month highs under pressure from a strengthening dollar and a slight easing of tensions between the United States and North Korea.

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Though North Korea`s Liberation Day celebration on Tuesday could raise the temperature again, markets were relieved that the weekend passed without more inflammatory rhetoric.

Elsewhere, the dollar rose from last week`s four-month lows against the yen and traded up against a basket of currencies, making dollar-priced gold costlier for non-U.S. investors.

"A lot of the negative news is priced into the dollar. That, combined with no real escalation in North Korea, should lead to lower gold prices, though it doesn`t mean we expect a very negative trend. We`ll stay within the $1,200 to $1,300 range for the year," said ABN Amro strategist Georgette Boele.

Spot gold fell 0.5 percent to $1,281.72 an ounce by 1352 GMT, having reached its highest since June 7 at $1,291.86 in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures for December delivery fell 0.5 percent to $1,287.30.

Consumer prices in the United States rose less than expected last month, data showed on Friday, suggesting benign inflation that could persuade a cautious Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates until December.

"As a result (of the weak inflation data), rate hike expectations according to the Fed Fund Futures have dropped to their lowest level since November, which should benefit gold," Commerzbank said in a note.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising interest rates because they increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

Hedge funds and money managers boosted their net long, or buy, position in COMEX gold for the fourth straight week to a near two-month high in the week to Aug. 8, data showed on Friday.

Spot gold faces strong resistance at $1,291 an ounce and could hover below this level or retrace to support at $1,278, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.

Silver fell 0.2 percent to $17.04 per ounce, having climbed last week to its highest since mid-June.

Platinum fell 0.9 percent to $971.20 after hitting a five-month high on Friday, while palladium rose 0.6 percent to $896.72.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)