Daily Digest Market Movers: Gold price bulls remain on the sidelines amid stronger USD,

geopolitical risks help limit losses

• The incoming stronger US labor market reports and the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's relatively hawkish remarks on Monday assist the US Dollar in prolonging its recovery move from the lowest level since July 2023.
• The US JOLTS Job Openings survey published on Tuesday showed that the number of available jobs unexpectedly jumped by 329K from an upwardly revised 7.711 million in the previous month to 8.040 million in August. 
• Furthermore, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported on Wednesday that private-sector employers added 143K jobs in September against expectations for a rise of 120K and August's upwardly revised reading of 103K.
• This provided evidence of a still resilient US labor market and forced investors to reassess the likelihood of another 50-basis points interest rate cut by the US central bank at its next monetary policy meeting in November.
• Adding to this hopes that China's massive stimulus measures will ignite a lasting recovery in the world's second-largest economy and further act as a headwind for the safe-haven Gold price on Thursday.
• On the geopolitical front, an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanon, early this Thursday comes after Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, raising the risk of a full-out war in the Middle East. 
• The mixed fundamental backdrop warrants some caution before placing aggressive directional bets around the XAU/USD ahead of important US macro data, including the closely-watched Nonfarm Payrolls report on Friday.
• In the meantime, Thursday's US economic docket – featuring Initial Jobless Claims and ISM Services PMI – and speeches by influential FOMC members might produce short-term opportunities around the precious metal.