Safe-haven gold on track for weekly gain

Gold prices were steady on Friday but still poised for a weekly gain, driven by safe-haven demand due to escalating geopolitical concerns, while the market awaited clearer signals on the US interest rate outlook.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at USD 2,669.99 per ounce as of 0006 GMT and up over 4% for the week so far. Bullion rose to over one-week high in the previous session.

* US gold futures edged down by 0.1% to USD 2,672.00.

* Data on Thursday showed that weekly initial jobless claims dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 213,000, a seven-month low, and below the 220,000 estimate of economists polled by Reuters, indicating job growth rebounded after being disrupted by hurricanes and labor strikes last month.

* On the geopolitical level, Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday in response to the US and UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, in a further escalation of the 33-month-old war.

* Non-yielding assets like bullion thrive in a lower interest rate environment and during times of geopolitical uncertainty.

* Meanwhile, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday reiterated his support for further interest rate cuts and his openness to slowing them down.

* Traders now expect a 58% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in December, as per the CME Fedwatch tool.

* Investors will scan the US consumer sentiment (final) data, due later in the day, along with the remarks from Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman, for further clues on rate outlook.

* SPDR Gold Trust GLD, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.29% to 877.97 metric tons on Thursday.

* Spot silver fell 0.1% to USD 30.75 per ounce, platinum steadied at USD 961.53 and palladium edged up 0.1% to USD 1,037.57. All three metals were on track for the weekly rise.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0700 Germany GDP Detailed QQ SA, YY NSA Q3

0700 UK Retail Sales MM, YY Oct

0700 UK Retail Sales Ex-Fuel MM Oct

0815 France HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs Nov

0830 Germany HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs Nov

0900 EU HCOB Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs Nov

0930 UK Flash Comp, Mfg, Serv PMIs Nov

1445 US S&P Global Mfg, Serv, Comp Flash PMIs Nov

1500 US U Mich Sentiment Final Nov

(Reporting by Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)