Safe-haven gold on track for weekly gain

Nov 22 - Gold prices were steady on Friday but still poised for a weekly gain, driven by safe-haven demand due to escalating geopolitical concerns, while market awaited clearer signals on the U.S. interest rate outlook.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $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.

* U.S. gold futures edged down by 0.1% to $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 U.S. 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 U.S. consumer sentiment data, due later in the day, along with the remarks from Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman, for further clues on rate outlook.

* SPDR Gold Trust, 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 $30.75 per ounce, platinum steadied at $961.53 and palladium edged up 0.1% to $1,037.57. All three metals were on track for weekly rise. DATA/EVENTS 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

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.