Spot gold prices held above $2,500 per ounce on Tuesday as the market focused on upcoming U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which could provide additional clues to the Federal Reserve's potential interest rate adjustments this month.

According to market consensus, annual U.S. consumer inflation is expected to fall to 2.6% in August, down from 2.9% in July. Core CPI inflation is expected to remain at 3.2% in August, the lowest level since April 2021.

DHF Capital's Bas Kooijman said the weaker-than-expected inflation data could raise the likelihood of a sharp rate cut by the Federal Reserve, which would support the price of gold.

Last week's data showed that U.S. job growth was lower than market expectations, but wage growth was stable and the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, which indicates that the labor market has not weakened significantly. This reduces to some extent the need for the Fed to cut interest rates significantly at next week's policy meeting.

The market now expects the probability of the Fed cutting rates by 50 basis points in September to be about 27%, and the probability of a 25 basis point cut to be about 73%.

Spot gold prices were slightly down 0.17% at $2,502.19 an ounce as of 08:04 GMT on Tuesday. gold futures for December delivery were down 0.07% at $2,530.90 an ounce.

The U.S. dollar index, which reflects the greenback's relative strength against a basket of major currencies, was almost flat at 101.650 on Tuesday.