PRECIOUS-Gold, silver slide as risk aversion lifts dollar

                                
 * Gold, precious metals cut loss in after-hours trade
                                
 * Gold was down sharply, as dollar rose on risk aversion
                                
 * Oil, equities slid amid fears over economic outlook
                                
 * Silver tumbled 5 pct after Friday's two-month high
 (Updates with New York closing prices, comment; changes
byline, dateline; rewrites throughout.)
                                
 By Carole Vaporean and Jan Harvey
                                
 NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Gold slid below $930 an
ounce before trimming those losses late in Monday's session,
but all precious metals prices remained sharply lower as
investors opted for less risky assets.
                                
 In their quest to shed more risky assets, investors bought
dollars, and sold equities and commodities across the board,
including metals and crude oil.
                                
 Among precious metals, gold tumbled about 1.5 percent and
silver tumbled nearly 6 percent. Silver was on track for its
biggest one-day fall since January, before trimming losses in
late trade. Silver's decline was led by falling gold prices and
was exacerbated by losses in industrial commodities.
                                
 Spot gold <XAU=> by 4:15 p.m. EDT (2015 GMT) was changing
hands at $933.75 an ounce after hitting a 2-1/2-week low of
$929.70 against $945.85 late on Friday.
                                
 U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> on the COMEX
division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ended down $12.90,
or 1.36 percent, at $935.80 an ounce. The December contract
slipped to $931.30, its lowest since July 30.
                                
 Spot silver <XAG=> was bid at $13.98, and earlier fell to a
two-week low of $13.82 an ounce against $14.68 on Friday.
                                
 Silver hit a two-month high of $15.16 an ounce on Friday as
a softer dollar and optimism over the economic outlook lifted
precious metals early in the day.
                                
 But prices fell in later trade as the dollar firmed, and
continued declining throughout Monday's session.
                                
 "We're back now to a sort of following game and we're
looking to energy and stocks on one side. But without a solid
underpinning from the U.S. and foreign stock markets,
industrial metals got hurt most and that took some of the
luster off gold," said Frank McGhee, head precious metals
trader at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago.
                                
 The dollar firmed versus a basket of major currencies
<.DXY> as risk aversion rose in the wider markets, prompting
buying of the U.S. unit as a haven. [FRX/]
                                
 A firmer U.S. currency usually weighs on gold, as it makes
dollar-priced assets such as bullion more expensive for holders
of other currencies and dents interest in the precious metal as
an alternative asset.
                                
 Physical demand for gold also remained weak, with the
largest bullion-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold
Trust, saying it saw no new inflows on Friday. [GOL/SPDR]
                                
 "Physical demand is not strong enough to absorb the
selling," senior Commerzbank trader Michael Kempinski said. "We
think we will see more (demand) at $925."
                                
 COMMODITIES SLIP
                                
 Caution over the outlook for the global economy also
battered stock markets, with U.S. stocks declines putting major
indexes on track for their worst day in seven weeks, as soft
data from Japan and a disappointing outlook from retailer
Lowe's Cos <LOW.N> dampened hopes about economic growth. [.N]
                                
 World stocks fell nearly 2 percent, with the benchmark MSCI
world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> heading for its biggest
one-day loss since early July. The CBOE VIX index <.VIX>, seen
as Wall Street's 'fear gauge', jumped 15 percent. [MKTS/GLOB]
                                
 Stock market losses and the stronger dollar knocked
bellwether commodity oil, which slipped 2 percent to its lowest
level this month below $66 a barrel. [O/R]
                                
 Base metals also slipped, pressuring silver, which as well
as being bought as an investment metal like gold is also widely
used in industries such as electronics manufacturing. [MET/L]
                                
 "Silver was the big loser in the latest commodity
sell-off," Standard Bank analyst Walter de Wet said in a note.
                                
 Elsewhere, platinum <XPT=> was at $1,222.60 an ounce in
late New York trade, up from $1,212.50 an ounce at session lows
that were down more than 3 percent from $1,254.50 on Friday.
Palladium <XPD=> also fell more than 3 percent to $266 versus
$273.50 an ounce on Friday.
 (Additional reporting by Michael Taylor; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)