Early on Monday, gold prices continue to trade bullish as fears about the coronavirus outbreak continue to dominate the market sentiment, keeping the safe haven appeal of the precious metal in the spotlight. At the time of writing, GOLD is trading at a little above $1,570.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has exceeded 900 so far in China, making it an even more severe epidemic than the SARS virus back in 2002-03. The WHO is sending a delegation of experts to Beijing to investigate the outbreak, keeping the markets under pressure and supporting gold prices.

Meanwhile cold also faces some pressure as China is one of the largest consumers of the precious metal in the world. The lockdown across China is expected to reduce the demand for the yellow metal among individual consumers and is likely to weigh on gold prices.

Gold prices also face some pressure from a strengthening dollar on the back of robust jobs data from the US. The US dollar is trading close to four month high, buoyed by the strong NFP report and shares a negative correlation with gold, stemming some of its safe haven appeal momentarily.