gold prices settled higher on monday building on last weeks gains as expectations that the federal reserve has finished hiking interest rates have added another tailwind to the yellow metals rally investors awaited us inflation data due out later this week for further hints on the feds path for interest rates with the london metal exchange closed for the uk coronation holiday hedging demand by physical gold buyers was absent on monday chintan karnani director of research at insignia consultants told marketwatch he said he believed traders will prefer to be invested in gold and silver before us inflation numbers come this week with consumerpriceindex data due out wednesday and a producerpriceindex reading set for release thursday inflation and inflation trends will set the direction of gold and silver till early june karnani said adding that after the inflation numbers there are no major us economic data releases or central bank meetings see the us economic calendar traders will probably switch between expectations of an interestrate pause and an interestrate cut and for some a last interestrate hike in june said karnani many preciousmetals market analysts agree that the yellow metal has received a new burst of momentum from last weeks fed meeting where chair jerome powell signaled that the central bank was close to finishing its interestrate hikes gold is trading near an alltime high amid a decline in us bond yields and the dollar following indications from the us federal reserve that it might pause its rate hiking cycle and the precious metals momentum remains to the upside a team of analysts at ing wrote in a note to clients that was shared with marketwatch on monday against that backdrop the ice us dollar index  a gauge of the dollars strength against a basket of rivals was up by less than 01 to 10126 meanwhile the yield on the 10year treasury note rose 51 basis points to 3496 on thursday gold futures for june delivery settled at 205570 per ounce marking the secondhighest settlement level ever for a mostactive contract according to dow jones market data thursdays settlement marked the peak of a torrid sixmonth rally that has taken gold futures close to record highs during this period gold has benefited from a handful of factors including a weaker us dollar fears of a recession and uncertainty over the us debtceiling conflict this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal