Gold heads for weekly gain on US fiscal concerns after tax-cut bill

Gold held steady on Friday, poised for a weekly gain as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill passed in Congress, raising 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%. * 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.