Gold stays close to 7-week low as Macron wins French election

Gold prices edged up a bit in European trade on Monday, but held near a seven-week low after pro-European Union centrist Emmanuel Macron beat anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist Marine Le Pen to clinch the French presidency.

Comex gold futures tacked on around $4.00, or about 0.3%, to $1,230.70 a troy ounce by 3:10AM ET (07:10GMT). It fell to an overnight low of $1,221.0, a level not seen since March 16. Meanwhile, spot gold was at $1,230.15.

Also on the Comex, silver futures rose 13.0 cents, or 0.7% to $16.40 a troy ounce, not far from last week's four-month low of $16.21.

Early projections showed the market-friendly, pro-EU candidate Macron had been voted in with about 65% of the vote, comfortably defeating Le Pen, a nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union.

While a victory for Macron had been widely forecast by polls, investors nevertheless were relieved that he had won so emphatically.

The outcome dampened demand for the yellow metal, which is often used as a hedge in times of political uncertainty.

Elsewhere in metals trading, platinum climbed 0.7% to $916.95, while palladium held steady at $812.85 an ounce.

Copper futures dipped 3.7 cents to $2.492 a pound.

Data released overnight showed that China's exports and imports rose in April but missed analysts' expectations, as domestic and foreign demand faltered and commodity prices fell.

China's April exports rose 8% from a year earlier, while imports expanded 11.9%, official data showed on Monday. That left the country with a trade surplus of $38.05 billion for the month, the General Administration of Customs said.

Worries about Chinese growth hit commodities markets hard last week with copper losing nearly 3%.