FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold held ground at $1,922.26 an ounce, at 0032 GMT. US gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,921.40.
* Traders mostly expect the U.S. central bank to cut rate hikes to 25 basis points (bps) at its two-day policy meeting ending Wednesday.
* The low interest rate environment decreases the opportunity cost of holding non-performing bullion.
* Investors are pricing in a 50 basis point rate hike from the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB), which also have policy meetings this week.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.2% to 917.05 tonnes on Monday. * China’s tax revenue rose 0.6% in 2022 from a year earlier, slowing sharply from a 10.7% increase in 2021 due to huge corporate tax refunds to support the COVID-ravaged economy, Finance Ministry data showed on Monday.
* Spot silver fell 0.2% to $23.56 an ounce, platinum was flat at $1,009.04 and palladium fell 0.2% to $1,635.48.
