Gold prices rose on Monday, to head for the second straight daily gain on strong safe-haven demand, but the firm US dollar is curbing today's gains.

Gold prices rose 1.3% to $1,871.81 an ounce, after opening at $1,848.42, and hit a low of $1,849.07.

The yellow metal gained 0.3% on Friday, its first daily gain as investors closed their positions to end the month.

However, gold prices lost 2.5% during January, and posted the fifth monthly loss out of 6 months, due to firm US dollar.

Gold prices rose today thanks to strong demand for precious metals as safe havens, especially silver, which jumped around 15%, and hit its 6-month high at $30.10 an ounce.

This came as some retail investors on online forums urged people to buy silver-backed ETFs and raise its price.

Following silver's rally, the gold-silver ratio -which represents the number of ounces of silver it takes to buy a single ounce of gold- fell to its lowest level since 2014.

The dollar index rose more than 0.4% today, extending its gains for the second straight day and hit its 2-week high of 90.92 points.

The US dollar is shining as the best alternative investment due to investors' risk aversion, amid growing bets of a broad sell-off wave in Wall Street and doubts about Joe Biden's Covid-19 stimulus plan.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 4.67 metric tonnes on Friday, with the total at the lowest level since June 19 at 1,160.13 MT.

Oil prices rose on Monday, with the US crude extending its gains for the second straight day, while Brent on track for its first daily gain out of 4 days, on hopes over the global demand recovery, which offset the impact of rising US drilling activity.

US crude rose 1.0% to $52.69 a barrel, after opening at $52.17, and hit a low of $51.66, and Brent crude rose 1.2% to $55.68 a barrel, after opening at $55.02, and hit a low of $54.63.

US crude yesterday rose 0.2% yesterday, while Brent crude futures fell 0.6% and posted the third straight daily loss.

Oil prices gained 7.5% during January, the third monthly gain in a row, after the OPEC-Plus collation decided to increase output by only 500,000 barrels, instead of the 2 million barrels increase that was agreed upon starting this year, which came in addition to Saudi Arabia’s pledge to voluntary cut its oil production.

These gains are also based on hopes about rising Asian demand, as Asia is the largest fuel-consumer in the world, as most of the major Asian countries depend on oil imports due to their weak production levels.

While oil prices rose today thanks to hopes about the global demand for fuel, as more Covid-19 vaccines were proven successful in trials, while infections declined in some countries.

Energy experts projected that oil demand will rise as more of the world’s population get their shots of Covid-19 vaccine.

Saudi Arabia announced a voluntary output cut of about one million barrels per day during February and March to balance the market.

Baker Hughes revealed on Friday that the US drilling and exploration rigs rose 6 rigs last week, the tenth straight weekly increase.

The total operating rigs rose to 295, the highest level since the week ending May 1, 2020.

The increase in the US drilling activity boosted the US production by more than 47% since mid-2016 to a total of 13.1 million barrels per day in March 2020, and held recently around 11 million bpd due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the US is still the world's largest oil producer.

Asian stock indices opened the first session of the week mostly higher, with China mixed while Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, and South Korea went higher, as New Zealand lost ground. 

From China, the manufacturing PMI rose to 51.3 from 51.9, while the services PMI fell to 52.4 from 55.7. 

From Australia, the AIG manufacturing index rose to 55.3 from 52.1, while the MI inflation index rose 0.2%, slowing down from 0.5% in December. 

Australia's job advertisements rose 2.3%, slowing down sharply from 8.6% in December, while earlier Japanese data showed the manufacturing PMI down to 49.8 as expected from 49.7.

Japan's TOPEX rose 0.82% to 1,823, while Nikkei 225 rose 0.87% to 27,905. 

China's CSI 300 rose 0.18%, while Shanghai declined 0.21% to 3,475. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.08% to 28,590, while South Korea's KOSPI rose 1.91% to 3,033. 

New Zealand's NZX 50 fell 0.45%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.78% to 6,658. 

USD/JPY tilted higher in Asian trade for the fourth session in a row near November highs following earlier data from Japan and ahead of some US data. 

As of 07:18 GMT, USD/JPY rose 0.05% to 104.67, with a seven-week high at 104.84, and a session low at 104.61. 

Earlier Japanese data showed the manufacturing PMI down to 49.8 as expected from 49.7.

From the US, the Markit manufacturing PMI is expected at 59.1, up from 57.1 in December, while construction spending is expected up 0.8%. 

US ISM manufacturing PMI is expected down to 60 from 60.7, while ISM manufacturing prices are expected down to 72 from 77.6.