In anticipation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech and critical jobs data later this week, gold prices held at a three-month high on Tuesday.
Gold was unchanged at $2,114.59 per ounce at 0423 GMT, near Monday's high of $2119.69, its highest since Dec. 4. U.S. gold futures fell 0.2% to $2,121.60.
"This rally in gold was triggered by the softer-than-expected U.S. data and the pullback in real rates... but there has been a general bias to buy dips and a positive underlying investor sentiment towards gold that has also made the market vulnerable to the upside," UBS's Joni Teves said.
Last week, U.S. manufacturing fell again in February, inflation eased, and consumer morale remained negative. On Monday, Fed President Raphael Bostic said the "prospering" economy and employment market do not require fast rate cuts.
Investors will focus on Fed Chair Powell's two-day congressional hearing on Wednesday and Thursday in an employment data-heavy week to learn more about the U.S. economy and the central bank's rate decreases. Lower interest rates improve non-yielding bullion's appeal.
SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, saw its holdings drop 10% from the previous year on March 4.
"Even though gold ETFs have continued to sell, the pace of the selling has been reasonably measured, which suggests these are tweaks to the composition of the investor portfolio rather than investors losing faith in gold necessarily," Teves said.
Platinum declined 0.7% to $890.95 and palladium jumped 1% to $950.13. "Platinum should regain its luster amid the ongoing substitution of Platinum for palladium and strong auto sales," ANZ analysts wrote. Spot silver decreased 0.8% to $23.71.
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