By Brijesh Patel
(Reuters) -Gold inched lower on Tuesday on a stronger dollar, although prices were stuck in a narrow range as investors looked forward to a series of U.S. economic data this week for more clues on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.
Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,918.40 per ounce 09:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT). U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,946.30.
The dollar rose 0.4% against rivals, making gold more expensive for other currency holders. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yields also ticked higher. [US/]
“It’s going to be a data-driven week for the gold market,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior market analyst at Kitco.
The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show the number of job openings fell to 9.465 million from 9.582 million in July.
The U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index is due on Thursday and nonfarm payrolls on Friday.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, traders are betting on a roughly 1-in-5 chance of another hike at the Fed’s September meeting after hawkish comments from Chair Jerome Powell at Jackson Hole last week.
“Fed probably going to continue with interest rate tightening cycle, at least one more time here this year and that’s a negative implication for gold,” Wyckoff said.
Higher interest rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
Meanwhile, SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.3% on Monday. [GOL/ETF]
“The fact that the price has been recovering since the middle of last week suggests that the selling pressure exerted by speculative financial investors has abated,” Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch wrote in a note.
Silver fell 0.1% to $24.23 per ounce. Platinum gained 0.6% to $969.83, its highest in a month. Palladium slipped 2.9% to $1,218.58.
(Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Harshit Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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