PRECIOUS-Gold climbs to six-week high on risk-off sentiment in equities, lower dollar

By Ishaan Arora

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Gold prices hit a six-week high on Monday as a softer dollar and early risk-off sentiment set the tone, with investors focused on a potential U.S. rate cut later this month, while silver touched a record high.

Spot gold XAU= rose 0.2% to $4,240.54 per ounce as of 0401 GMT after touching its highest since October 21. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 for December delivery gained 0.5% to $4,276.00.

Silver XAG= jumped 2% to $57.48 per ounce after earlier hitting an all-time high of $57.86.

The U.S. dollar fell to a two-week low, making greenback-priced bullion cheaper for holders of other currencies. USD/

"There's a risk-off session in S&P futures, which are down 0.8% in line with a sell off in major cryptocurrencies. So that has also created a bit of positive feedback loop into gold as a safe haven asset play in today's much more thinly traded session," said OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong.

U.S. stock futures were lower in Asian trade, while among cryptocurrencies, bitcoin BTC= fell 3.6% to $87,881.82 and ether ETH= dropped 5% to $2,871.59. MKTS/GLOB

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, seen as a frontrunner for Fed Chair, said on Sunday he would be happy to take the job if appointed by President Donald Trump. Like Trump, Hassett believes rates should be lower.

Markets now await core U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures figures on Friday for further cues on the Fed's policy path.

Lower borrowing costs tend to support non-yielding bullion.

Silver prices have moved higher amid thin liquidity caused by the CME outage last week, rather than any fundamental factors, Wong added.

Among other precious metals, platinum XPT= rose 1.3% to $1,694.70, while palladium XPD= gained 2.1% to $1,482.45.