gold prices eked out a marginal gain on monday after prices pared earlier declines following the release of a closely watched gauge of manufacturing activity which had slid to its lowest level since the onset of the covid19 pandemic gold has struggled in recent weeks against the backdrop of persistent stubborn inflation resilient economic data and as a result higher interest rate expectations were seeing it bounce back a little over the last couple of sessions after briefly dipping below 1900 but the trend is still very much against it said craig erlam senior market analyst at oanda gold prices received a reprieve on monday after a barometer of business conditions at american factories fell to the lowest level since 2020 when the us was locked down during pandemic underscoring broad weakness in the industrial side of the us economy the institute for supply managements manufacturing survey dipped to 46 in june from 469 in the prior month it was the lowest reading since may 2020 seemanufacturers contract for 8th month in a row ism finds and are weakest since the pandemic lockdowns but analysts expected the report likely only elicited a brief reprieve for gold prices which have been trending lower since logging the secondhighest close for a mostactive futures contract ever on may 4 the mostactive contract settled at 205570 an ounce that day dow jones market data show preciousmetals market analysts have blamed the weakness in gold on expectations that the federal reserve could delivery two more interestrate hikes later this year which has helped to push up treasury yields and the value of the us dollar the highest settlement level on record for the yellow metal arrived on aug 6 2020 when prices finished at 206940 per ounce according to dow jones market data analysts had thought gold might eclipse that high during its bull run that began last fall and peaked in may whether or not it will resume remains to be seen the ice us dollar index gained 02 to 10309 while the yield on the 10year treasury note gained 53 basis points to 3863 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