Gold steadied as investors weighed a decline in global equities, unease over lofty tech valuations and fading expectations of an interest-rate cut in the US.

Bullion was trading around $4,070 an ounce, having ended the previous session up 0.6%. A high-stakes earnings report from Nvidia Corp. due Wednesday will test investors' nerves over stocks linked to artificial-intelligence developments. While gold often performs well when investors seek refuge from market turmoil, it can also suffer in the short term as traders are forced to unwind leveraged positions.

Comments by several Federal Reserve policymakers have also lowered expectations of a US rate cut, which would normally be a tailwind for non-yielding bullion. Interest-rate swaps now imply about a 50-50 chance of a December reduction after all but pricing in a quarter-point move just two weeks ago. The longest US government shutdown in history has delayed the release of key data, causing investors to fly blind. 

A key clue on the health of the US labor market is expected Thursday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the September jobs report. While the data will be more backward-looking than usual, the figures will still help shed light on the state of the world's largest economy after the six-week shutdown.

Gold rose 0.1% to $4,071.89 an ounce at 7:21 a.m. in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index ended the previous session flat. Silver edged higher, while palladium and platinum inched lower.

Source: Bloomberg