February gold rose $2 to trade at $648.90 an ounce Monday morning.

"Dollar diversification will continue to be the main theme of the market with recent gains in ETF [exchanged-traded fund] holdings showing investors are keen to hold the yellow metal," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, in a note to clients. March silver was down 2 cents at $14.17 an ounce and March copper traded at $3.162 a pound, down 1 cent. Metals shares traded mainly higher, reflected by a 0.5% rise in the Amex Gold Bugs Index.