* Gold slips for second straight session
* Platinum touches lowest in a month
* Silver hovers close to a more than four-month low
* Dollar extends gains on Fed statement
* Markets eye Friday's U.S. jobs data, U.S.-China tradetalks (Updates prices)By K. Sathya NarayananMay 2 (Reuters) - Gold prices slumped to an over four-monthlow on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee(FOMC) axed any hopes for a rate cut in the near term, subduingdemand for the non-interest bearing bullion.Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,270.22 per ounceas of 1:42 pm EDT (1742 GMT), after touching its lowest sinceend-December 2018 at $1,265.85 earlier in the session.U.S. gold futures settled down 1 percent at $1,272 anounce."A lot of people were positioned for the FOMC statement tobe little bit more dovish than it actually was," said FawadRazaqzada, market analyst with Forex.com."We have seen an implied odds of a 2019 rate cut fall from75 percent to 50 percent so people are revising their rate cutexpectations as the Fed was not as dovish as people expected."The Federal Reserve kept the benchmark interest rateunchanged on Wednesday, in line with the market's expectations.However, market participants were taken by surprise when thecentral bank emphasised it saw no compelling reason to considera rate cut any time soon, citing rising employment and economicgrowth. Also weighing on gold was the U.S. dollar , whichgained 0.1 percent against key rivals on the Fed's comments,making gold costlier for investors holding other currencies. Higher interest rates increase the opportunity cost ofholding non-yielding gold and tends to boost the U.S. dollar."Market participants are now looking out for the U.S.non-farm payrolls data on Friday and if we break out over200,000 (jobs) then that will put additional pressure on gold,"said Phillip Streible, senior commodities strategist at RJOFutures.Economists polled by Reuters are expecting total non-farmemployment to have increased by 185,000 jobs in April.
Investors are also closely monitoring the U.S.-China tradetalks, anticipating a quick resolution to the year-longtit-for-tat tariff war. Any positive news from the negotiations tend to boostappetite for riskier assets, denting gold's safe-haven appeal.Elsewhere, silver fell 0.5 percent to $14.60 anounce, holding close to a more than four-month low of $14.52touched earlier in the session.Platinum slipped 2.1 percent to $845.49, aftertouching its lowest in a month.
Palladium was steady at $1,352.28 per ounce, havingtouched its lowest since Jan. 25 at $1,309.67 in the previoussession. (Reporting by K. Sathya Narayanan and Eileen Soreng inBengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Marguerita Choy)
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