Gold was trapped in narrow ranges on Tuesday, struggling to move higher as investors looked to a near-term increase in US interest rates in the face of mostly firm economic signals. Gold ended a seven-week losing streak last week as China's shock devaluation of its yuan helped spur some safe-haven bids. With the yuan since stabilising, market focus has shifted back to a looming hike in US interest rates.
Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,118.78 an ounce by 0603 GMT, after rising modestly on Monday. Bullion scaled a three-week high of $1,126.31 last week as the yuan devaluation fueled some speculation that the Fed could hold off on raising interest rates this year.
US gold for December delivery was flat at $1,118.40 an ounce. Data on Monday showed US homebuilder sentiment rose in August to its highest level since a matching reading almost a decade ago, helping counter a plunge in New York manufacturing activity to its weakest since 2009. Spot silver dropped 0.5 percent to $15.23 an ounce, platinum was steady at $994 and palladium slipped 0.3 percent to $610.50.