Gold prices fell on Monday, deepening losses for the second straight day, near falling below the $1,800 mark, weighed down by rising US dollar.

Gold prices fell more than 0.5% to $1,801.75 an ounce, after opening at $1,811.49, and a high at $1,817.36.

Gold lost 0.9% on Friday, its first daily loss in 3 days, and pulled back from a 4-week high of $1,834.14 due to corrections and profit-taking.

Gold prices gained 0.2%  last week, in the fourth straight weekly gain.

The dollar index rose 0.3% today, to head for the third straight daily gain in 3 days against a majority of rivals, and hit a 3-month high at 93.03 points. 

Investors are focused on the US dollar due to growing odds of the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy soon, and amid fears of the spread of the new Covid-19 delta strain in most parts of the world.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 5.82 metric tonnes on Friday, with the total at the lowest level since May 14 at 1,028.55 metric tonnes.

Oil prices continued to drop as the US market opened on Monday, deepening losses for the fourth straight day, and hit a 6-week low, with the US crude falling below $70 a barrel and Brent below $71, after OPEC-Plus agreed on an output hike starting from next August, and amid renewed oversupply concerns, especially after the US oil production accelerated.

US crude fell 3.4% to the lowest since June 10 at $68.99 a barrel, after opening at $71.43, and hit a high at $71.66, and Brent crude fell 2.6% to the lowest since June 10 at $70.92 a barrel, after opening at $72.81, and hit a low at $73.32.

The US crude lost 0.1% Friday, and Brent crude fell 0.3%, in the third straight daily loss, after the Saudi-Emirati dispute over OPEC-Plus production policy was resolved.

Oil prices lost around 3.75% last week, the second weekly loss in a row, due to renewed global supply and demand concerns.

The OPEC Plus alliance announced after an emergency meeting on Sunday to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day starting from August, and extended the expiration date of the cuts until the end of 2022 instead of April 2022.

The alliance decided to raise the production baseline from 43.8 million bpd to 45.5 million bpd starting from May 2022, and raised the UAE production baseline to 3.8 million bpd from 3.5 million bpd, with Saudi Arabia and Russia production baseline rising by 500,000 bpd each from 11 to 11.5 million bpd.

The current cuts are now nearly 6 million bpd, which was planned to end in April 2022, but will be lowered to 5.6 million bpd until the end of 2022 after the new pact, and the agreement will be reviewed monthly.

While the US output rose 300,000 barrels the past two weeks, with the total at the highest level since May 2020 at 11.4 million barrels per day.

US stock indices fell on Friday, following the US consumer confidence data.

Data showed that the US retail sales index rose 0.6% in June, beating forecasts of a drop by 0.4%.

The core retail sales index (excluding fuel and food prices) rose 1.3% in June, beating forecasts of 0.4%.

University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey fell to 80.8 points in June from 85.5 points, while analysts forecast 86.5.

The markets are closely focused on the quarterly earnings results season, after several major banks announced their results this week, and the US tech companies will announce their results the next few days.

To the oil market, WTI crude August futures rose 0.2% or 16 cents, and closed at $71.81 a barrel, but posted weekly losses of 3.7%, after hitting a high of $72.3 and a low of $70.4.

Brent September futures rose 0.2% or 12 cents, and closed at $73.59 a barrel, with a weekly loss of 2.6%, after hitting a high of $74.09 and a low of $72.3.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.8% or 299 points, and closed at 34,687, and posted a weekly loss of 0.5%, with a day high of 35,090, and a low of 34,647.

S&P 500 fell 0.7% or 32 points to 4,327, and posted a weekly loss of 1%, after hitting a high of 4,375 and a low of 4,322 points.

Nasdaq fell 0.8% or 116 points to 14,427, and registered a 1.9% weekly loss, with a high of 14,623 and a low of 14,413.

Euro fell in European trade against dollar for third straight session, marking three-month lows as haven demand climbs on dollar amid expected divergent policies between US and Europe. 

EUR/USD fell 0.3% to 1.1765, the lowest since April 5, marking highs at 1.1814. 

Euro closed down 0.1% on Friday, the second loss in a row following strong US data.

Euro lost 0.6% last week against dollar, the second weekly decline in three following a faster rate of inflation in the US, which raised chances of tighter US monetary policy. 

The dollar index rose 0.25% on Monday, marking the third daily profit in a row and hitting three-month highs at 93.03. 

Investors are buying up the dollar amid expected earlier US policy tightening soon, and as the Delta coronavirus strain spreads worldwide, raising haven demand. 

Some analysts are now expecting divergent monetary policies across the pond, with the US tightening and the EU clinging to ultraeasy policies.