PRECIOUS-Gold holds in narrow range as spotlight shifts to US jobs data

By Brijesh Patel

July 3 (Reuters) - Gold prices were stuck in range-bound trade on Thursday as investors awaited U.S. non-farm payrolls data that could influence the Federal Reserve's timeline for interest rate cuts.

Spot gold XAU= was down 0.3% at $3,347.44 an ounce by 1128 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 eased by 0.1% to $3,358.

"Gold is looking for new triggers," said WisdomTree commodities strategist Nitesh Shah.

"We had slightly weak ADP data that could potentially point to a little bit of weakness in underlying labour markets, which has been a little bit of a support for gold, but the non-farm payrolls could be a trigger point later."

Data released by ADP showed U.S. private payrolls dropped by 33,000 jobs in June, marking the first decline in more than two years.

The non-farm payrolls report due at 1230 GMT on Thursday is expected to show an addition of 110,000 jobs in June, down from 139,000 in May, according to a Reuters poll.

U.S. equities climbed to record highs after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. has struck a trade deal with Vietnam, including a 20% tariff on exports to the United States. He has also expressed optimism about a deal with India. MKTS/GLOB

"More trade deals at lower tariffs could build some confidence that inflation will remain benign, thus allowing the Fed to ease monetary policy," ANZ analysts said in a note.

Non-yielding gold tends to perform well when interest rates are low and during times of political and financial uncertainty.

In other precious metals, spot silver XAG= rose 0.9% to $36.93 an ounce while platinum XPT= lost 2.7% to $1,379.95 and palladium XPD= retreated by 1.9% to $1,132.76.