• Gold price remains confined in a familiar range held since the beginning of the current week. 
• A positive risk tone caps the upside, though a combination of factors continues to lend support.
• Fed rate cut bets, along with geopolitical risks, should help limit any meaningful corrective slide.

Gold price (XAU/USD) holds steady above the $2,500 psychological mark during the Asian session on Thursday and remains close to the all-time peak touched earlier this week. Data released on Wednesday showed that US job growth over the past year to March was significantly weaker than initially estimated. Adding to this, the July FOMC meeting minutes showed that several officials were leaning toward an immediate interest rate cut. This reaffirmed bets for an imminent start of the Fed's policy easing cycle in September, which battered the US Dollar (USD) to a fresh YTD low on Wednesday and continues to act as a tailwind for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Investors, however, are looking for more clarity if the not-so-strong US labor market makes the case for a larger interest rate cut next month. This puts more weight on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium, which will play a key role in influencing the near-term USD price dynamics and provide a fresh directional impetus to the Gold price. In the meantime, the prevalent risk-on environment caps the safe-haven XAU/USD, though the lack of progress in a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas should help limit the downside. Traders now look to the flash global PMIs, which, along with the US macro data, might produce short-term opportunities.