Gold heads for weekly gain on US fiscal concerns after tax-cut bill
fiscal concerns
, though stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data capped bullion's gains.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was flat at $3,328.36 per ounce, as of 0029 GMT. Bullion is up 1.7% this week. * U.S. gold futures edged down 0.1% to $3,337.90.
* Trump's tax-cut legislation cleared its final hurdle in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved a massive package that would fund his domestic agenda and push millions of Americans off health insurance.
* The labor market data on Thursday showed U.S. firms added a more-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 4.1%.
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* Solid job gains bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady.
* Fed funds futures traders are now pricing in a 50-basis-point rate cut this year, starting October.
* Meanwhile, Trump announced that letters specifying tariff rates on imports would begin being sent out Friday, signaling a shift from earlier pledges to negotiate individual trade deals.
* Non-yielding bullion, considered a
safe-haven asset
during geopolitical and economic uncertainties, tends to perform well in a low-interest-rate environment.
* On Ukraine, Trump said a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no progress in resolving the conflict, while the Kremlin stated that Moscow would continue addressing the "root causes" of the crisis.
*
Platinum prices
have limited room to rise further after a record quarterly rally, analysts and traders said, with Chinese imports expected to soften and South African output likely to recover against a backdrop of still-muted auto sector demand.
* Spot silver fell 0.3% to $36.73 per ounce, platinum rose 0.8% to $1,378.30 and palladium was up 0.1% at $1,137.94. All three metals were headed for weekly gains. DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0600 Germany Industrial Orders MM, Manufacturing O/P Cur Price SA, Consumer Goods SA May 0830 UK S&P GLOBAL PMI: MSC COMPOSITE - OUTPUT June.
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