WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday as the dollar climbed up ahead of some crucial economic data.
Investors now await Thursday's ADP Employment change and weekly jobless claims figures.
The focus is also on Friday's U.S. jobs report. The data is crucial as an apparently cooling labour market might reignite recession fears and fuel speculation of a 50-basis point rate cut in mid-September.
Money markets currently expect the Fed to cut rates by 25 basis points (bps) in September, with odds of a 50-bps cut diminishing further after last week's data.
The dollar index advanced to 101.86, gaining more than 0.2%.
Gold futures for September ended down by $3.90 or about 0.16% at $2,489.90 an ounce.
In U.S. economic news, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in the month of August.
The ISM said its manufacturing PMI inched up to 47.2 in August from 46.8 in July, but a reading below 50 still indicates contraction. Economists had expected the index to rise to 47.5.
The Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday unexpectedly showing a decrease by U.S. construction spending in the month of July.
The report said construction spending fell by 0.3 percent to an annual rate of $2.163 trillion in July, while revised data showed construction spending was nearly unchanged at an annual rate of $2.169 trillion in June.
Economists had expected construction spending to come in unchanged compared to the 0.3 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.
Silver futures for September dropped $0.780 or about 2.7% to settle at $27.951 an ounce, while Copper futures for September fell to $4.0320 per pound, losing $0.1130.
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