Gold rises

Gold prices inched up on Monday after marking their biggest one-day percentage gain in over a year the session before, with the U.S. dollar easing on comments from the Federal Reserve chairman in support of a gradual approach to raising rates.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,206.57 an ounce as of 0105 GMT. It rose about 1.7 percent on Friday in its biggest one-day percentage gain since May 17, 2017. U.S. gold futures were almost flat at $1,213 an ounce.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1 percent at 95.075.

Fed chair Jerome Powell on Friday defended the U.S. central bank´s push to raise interest rates as healthy for the economy and signaled more hikes were coming despite President Donald Trump´s criticism of higher borrowing costs.