07.07.202600:44:38UTC+00Gold Steadies as FOMC Minutes Eyed

Gold held near $4,150 an ounce on Tuesday after a volatile start to the week, as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s June meeting minutes for fresh signals on the path of interest rates. Data released last week showed that US job growth slowed sharply in June, and payroll figures for the prior two months were revised downward, prompting markets to scale back expectations of an imminent rate hike. Traders now assign roughly a 50% probability to a Fed rate increase in September, down from about two-thirds before the latest employment report. The precious metal also found support from weaker oil prices, as traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz continued to recover following the implementation of the interim US-Iran peace agreement. At the same time, Middle Eastern producers boosted output and cut prices in response to shifting market conditions, while OPEC+ agreed to raise production quotas for next month.