Sharjah24 - Reuters: Gold prices held steady on Monday, after plunging in the previous session on China's central bank pausing purchases and a robust U.S. jobs data dousing hopes of an imminent interest rate cut.
Spot gold was unchanged at $2,296.17 per ounce, as of 0751 GMT. U.S. gold futures fell 0.5% to $2,313.30.
Bullion declined 3.5% on Friday in its biggest one-day drop since November 2020 after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report and China's central bank pausing gold purchases to its reserves in May after 18 consecutive months of buying.
"The medium-term bullish trend that was in picture since last week or so has now a chance of being damaged from a technical perspective," said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at OANDA.
Bets of the Federal Reserve cutting rates in September fell to around 50% from around 70% before the jobs data.
"We expect a lift in the Federal Reserve's median "dots plots" to two cuts in 2024 (from three); but inflation should still moderate, and a September cut is our base case," said UBS in a note.
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