NEW YORK: Gold held steady after briefly trimming gains on Thursday as data showed tightness in the US job market, with focus now shifting to a host of Federal Reserve speakers for cues on interest rate hikes.

Spot gold was up 0.1% to $1,918.49 per ounce by 10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 GMT), after hitting a one-week low on Wednesday. US gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,943.00 per ounce.

Gold is choppy due to a lack of fresh fundamental news and it’s just trading on technicals favouring the bearish camp at the moment, but some short covering on the dips based on some perceived value buying is keeping it afloat, said Jim Wyckoff, senior market analyst at Kitco.

Silver fell about 1% to $22.96 per ounce, platinum lost 0.7% to $902.30 and palladium slipped 0.3% to $1,210.87.