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Gold make headway as financiers eye US data for Fed clues

Gold rates edged up on Tuesday and were set to break a fourday losing streak, as financiers waited for U.S. financial information due later on today for more clearness on the timing of the Federal Reserve's expected rate cut this year.

Area gold was up 0.3% at $2,405.09 per ounce at 1810 GMT. U.S. gold futures settled 0.5% higher at $2,407.30.

The market has moved its focus from U.S. politics to financial information and hypothesising that we are well on track to start seeing rate cuts in September, said Bart Melek, head of commodity methods at TD Securities.

According to a growing majority of economic experts in a poll the Fed will cut interest rates twice this year.

Markets are anticipating a 96% opportunity of a rate cut by the U.S. reserve bank in September, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

The focus today will be on the U.S. gross domestic product report for the second quarter released on Thursday and the most recent individual intake expenditures price index - the Fed's preferred inflation gauge - due on Friday.

Anything weaker than anticipated (PCE data) would be favorable, mainly because it would encourage the markets that the U.S. reserve bank is easing monetary policy in September, Melek stated.

On the other hand, India slashed import duties on gold and silver in a relocation market authorities stated might lift retail need and help cut smuggling in the world's second-biggest bullion consumer.

Greater demand for gold from India could boost worldwide rates.

Local gold costs fell about 6% to their most affordable level in more than three months after the announcement.

The total technical posture for the yellow metal remains bullish. That continues to invite the chart-based speculators to the long side of the market, consisting of doing some perceived bargain hunting when the marketplace dips, said Jim Wyckoff, senior market analyst at Kitco Metals.

Somewhere else, spot silver fell 0.4% to $29.11, platinum fell 0.2% at $945.01 and palladium gained about 1.8% to $924.

(source: Reuters)