*
Gold down after hitting near 3-week high
*
Powell's comments, Feb payrolls awaited
(Updates prices)
By Kavya Guduru
March 6 (Reuters) - Gold prices ticked lower on Monday
as central banks indicated further interest rate hikes to tame
stubbornly high inflation, diminishing the metal's appeal.
Spot gold was down 0.1% at $1,853.92 per ounce, as of
0708 GMT, after climbing to its highest since Feb. 15 earlier in
the session. U.S. gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,859.60.
Higher interest rates discourage investors from placing
money in non-yielding assets such as gold.
"More sustained moves (in gold) may be driven by hard data -
U.S. non-farm payroll, where a weaker-than-expected figure will
be looked upon to push back against January's strong labour data
as a one-off," said Yeap Jun Rong, a market analyst at IG.
Investors are awaiting U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell's testimony to Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the
February payrolls report on Friday for monetary policy clues.
San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said on Saturday if
data on inflation and the labour market continued to come in
hotter than expected, interest rates would need to go higher,
and stay there longer. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said
on Friday he could see U.S. rates in the 5.5%-5.75% range.
Data on Friday showed the U.S. services sector grew at a
steady clip in February, with new orders and employment rising
to more than one-year highs.
"We see a trading range of $1,775-$1,900 as we expect to see
the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting to come across
as more hawkish than investors are hoping for," Edward Meir, a
metals analyst at Marex, wrote in a monthly note. Underlying inflation in the euro zone will stay high in the
near term, so a 50 basis-point rate increase later this month is
increasingly certain, European Central Bank President Christine
Lagarde said.
Spot silver was down 0.1% at $21.22 per ounce,
platinum slipped 0.4% to $973.66 and palladium lost 0.7% to $1,443.04.
(Reporting by Kavya Guduru in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu
Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
