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Gold down 0.6% this week
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Platinum and palladium set for weekly gains
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January U.S. non-farm payrolls due at 1330 GMT
(Adds detail, updates prices)
By Kavya Guduru
Feb 3 (Reuters) - Gold traded in a tight range on Friday
as cautious investors took stock of a host of central bank
statements and positioned for a key U.S. non-farm payrolls
report.
Having lost nearly 2% in the previous session, spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,916.59 an ounce by 1249 GMT. U.S. gold
futures were unchanged at $1,929.90.
The dollar lost 0.2% against a basket of currencies,
making gold a more attractive bet, but bullion remains 0.6% down
on the week and set for its biggest weekly decline since
mid-November. "The recovering dollar is pulling down bullion," with some
profit-taking also at play, said Carlo Alberto De Casa, external
analyst at Kinesis Money.
"A further rally in gold needs a new catalyst...that's why
gold is taking a break."
A day after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark
borrowing costs by 25 basis points (bps), the European Central
Bank and the Bank of England both raised interest rates by 50
bps each, in line with expectations.
Gold tends to gain on expectations of lower interest rates
because they reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding
bullion.
Additionally, prices for physical gold in India hit record
highs, while premiums were offered in China after the week-long
Lunar New Year holidays.
Russians bought a record number of gold bars in 2022, finance ministry data shows, as tax cuts on precious metals encouraged people to stock up on an asset viewed as a safe-haven investment.
Investors now await the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for January, which is expected to show 185,000 more jobs last month after a rise of 223,000 in December, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Elsewhere, spot silver was steady at $23.47 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.3% at $1,018.64 and palladium jumped 1.8% to $1,684.35, with both set to finish the week in positive territory. (Reporting by Kavya Guduru in Bengaluru, additional reporting Seher Dareen Editing by David Goodman)
