* Gold hits its highest level since May 22 on Friday
* PBOC refrains from gold purchases for a second month
* Fed Powell, US inflation data due this week
July 8 (Reuters) - Gold prices fell on Monday, hitting pause after a sharp rally in the previous session over expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in September following soft U.S. jobs data last week.
Spot gold fell 0.6% to $2,377.38 per ounce as of 10:34 a.m. ET (1434 GMT), after rising to its highest level since May 22 on Friday. U.S. gold futures slipped 0.5% to $2,385.20.
"This looks like a lot of profit taking, and the equities are strong and this morning here, which kind of has a little bit of a competing factor with precious metals," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
"However, I believe you'll see gold higher based off the prediction that the Fed is going to be cutting rates. The Fed watch tool saw rate cuts coming in September and then another cut possibly in November and December that will be bullish for gold."
Data last week pointed to a slackening labor market keeping the U.S. central bank on course to start cutting interest rates soon.
Markets are currently pricing in a 71% chance of the Fed cutting interest rates in September and another cut in December.
"If we get another downside surprise in inflation data, which we have seen pretty consistently in U.S. data, then that's going to be a tailwind for gold," said Kyle Rodda, a financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Investors this week will be focussed on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's semi-annual Congressional testimony, comments from a series of Fed officials, and U.S. inflation data due on Thursday.
Elsewhere, top consumer China's central bank refrained from gold purchases to its reserves for a second consecutive month in June.
Spot silver eased 0.1% to $31.18 per ounce, platinum fell 1.7% to $1,009.40 and palladium dipped 0.9% to $1,017.22. (Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
