Gold price is weighed down by a combination of factors

The US Dollar (USD) edges higher for the second successive day and recovers further from over a two-month low touched on Wednesday. This, in turn, prompts some intraday selling around the US Dollar-denominated Gold price. Apart from this, signs of stability in the equity markets undermine traditional safe-haven assets, including the XAU/USD. That said, rising bets for an imminent pause in the Federal Reserve's (Fed) rate-hiking cycle caps the upside for the Greenback and helps limit the downside for the non-yielding yellow metal.

Bets that Federal Reserve is down with rate hikes lend support

Investors seem convinced that the Fed is nearly done with its inflation-fighting interest rate hikes. In fact, the markets are pricing in an even chance of a 25 bps lift-off at the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in May and the possibility of rate cuts by year-end. The bets were reaffirmed by the disappointing release of the ADP report from the United States (US) on Wednesday, which showed that private-sector employers added 145K jobs in March as compared to the 200K anticipated and the 261K previous.