Gold stalls

Bengaluru : Gold prices held steady during Asian trade on Tuesday as investors remained on the sidelines amid expectations of a U.S. interest rate hike this month and on fears of an escalation in the Sino-U.S. trade war.

Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,195.79 an ounce at 0654 GMT.

U.S. gold futures rose 0.1 percent to $1,201.60.Strong U.S. payrolls data last week cemented expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in September, in what would be its third hike this year, with expectations of one rise more in December.

Higher rates increase bond yields, making the non-yielding bullion less attractive and tend to boost the dollar.

"The precious metal has shown excruciating weakness as the U.S. economy demonstrated a stellar performance in Q2 2018," said Benjamin Lu, commodities analyst at Phillip Futures.