Gold prices were set for a weekly decline on Friday after the Federal Reserve's verdict on its monetary policy-easing cycle signalled a slowdown in rate cuts, while focus shifted to the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure data due later in the day.
Spot gold was little changed at $2,596.89 per ounce, as of 0326 GMT, and has lost about 2% so far this week.
U.S. gold futures nudged 0.1% higher to $2,611.30.
Gold is consolidating as "investors await Trump to resume office next year and the Fed will also go meeting by meeting, considering the data development and seeing what is part of Trump's trade policy," said Soni Kumari, a commodity strategist at ANZ.
Investors now await the core PCE data, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, for further clues on the U.S. economic outlook.
The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points and the cautious note struck by its economic projections and expected slowdown of rate cuts pushed gold on Wednesday to its lowest point since Nov. 18.
Data showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, while jobless claims also slipped more than anticipated, reinforcing expectations that the central bank will take a cautious approach to policy easing.
A slightly more hawkish set of the Fed's regional bank presidents will become voters on the central bank's rate-setting panel in 2025, raising the chance that any further interest rate cuts next year could spur more dissents like the one seen on Wednesday from the head of the Cleveland Fed.
Higher rates dull the appeal of the non-yielding asset.
According to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao, spot gold may retest the support at $2,582 per ounce.
Silver was headed for its worst week since December 2023. Spot silver fell 0.4% to $28.92 per ounce.
Platinum was down 0.3% at $920.80 and palladium steadied at $906.47. Both the metals were poised for weekly losses. - Reuters
