Gold prices inched up on Monday helped by a softer dollar and mounting coronavirus cases in the United States that escalated concerns of the pandemic’s impact on the pace of economic recovery. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold was up 0.1% to $1,888.91 per ounce by 0042 GMT. * U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $1,888.30. * The dollar index was down 0.1%, while Asia’s stock markets opened higher on vaccine optimism. * U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s top advisers called for urgent action to address the nation’s “deeply alarming” COVID-19 crisis on Sunday, while the number of infection cases in the United States crossed the 11-million mark. * U.S. consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly in early November as households worried about their finances, the resurgent pandemic and the depleted fiscal stimulus, dimming the economy’s outlook. * President Donald Trump on Sunday briefly acknowledged losing the U.S. election in a morning Twitter post but then backtracked, saying he concedes “nothing,” and vowing to keep up a court fight that election-law experts say is unlikely to succeed. * Japan’s economy grew an annualised 21.4% in the third quarter, data showed on Monday, rebounding sharply from a record postwar slump. * Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.42% to 1,234.32 tonnes on Friday.