TOKYO, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Gold prices held steady above $940
per ounce on Thursday, but the topside was capped by firmness in
the dollar, which makes the precious metal expensive for
investors holding other currencies.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold <XAU=> traded at $944.50 per ounce as of 0014
GMT, little changed from New York's notional close of $944.10.
* U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> were nearly
flat at $946.00 per ounce after falling 20 cents to $945.80 on
the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on
Wednesday.
* The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, said holdings stood unchanged at 1,061.83
tonnes on Wednesday from the previous business day. []
* ETF Securities said on Wednesday it saw the biggest ever
one-day inflow into its ETFS Physical Gold exchange-traded
commodity <PHAU.L> on Aug. 25. []
* South Africa's biggest union said a strike at Impala
Platinum's <IMPJ.J> biggest mine may spread to the entire company
after wage talks broke down on Wednesday. [] The same
union said workers at Anglo American Plc's <AAL.L> unit Anglo
Platinum <AMSJ.J>, the world's No.1 platinum producer followed by
Impala Platinum, were likely to accept Anglo's latest pay offer.
[]
MARKET NEWS
* Japan's Nikkei stock average <> was down 0.9 percent.
[]
* U.S. stocks closed little changed on Wednesday as investors
stayed cautious despite solid reports on new home sales and
durable goods orders. For the third consecutive day, equities
bounced after favourable news, but the gains fizzled. []
* The dollar held onto broad gains on Thursday as investor
fatigue in riskier assets like stocks and higher-yielding
currencies set in, despite robust economic data from the U.S. and
Europe. [] Investors tend to buy the dollar and yen as safe
havens or unwind trades in higher-yielding assets financed with
the U.S. and Japanese currencies when recovery optimism fades.
DATA EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Thursday: <ECON>
- UK Nationwide house price index for Aug (0600 GMT)
- German GFK consumer sentiment index for Sept (0600 GMT)
- Euro zone M3 money supply for July (0800 GMT)
- UK CBI distributive trades for Aug (1000 GMT)
- U.S. preliminary GDP for Q2 (1230 GMT)
- U.S. advance Q2 corporate profits (1230 GMT)
- Weekly U.S. jobless claims (1230 GMT)
- UK GFK consumer confidence index for Aug (2301 GMT)
RELATED NEWS
>Gold ends slightly lower as dollar jumps []
>Firm dollar a cap on commodities, except sugar []
>Barclays has no plans to scale back metals ETPs []
>Russia boosts gold output 21 pct in Jan-July []
>Canada's Eldorad to buy Sino Gold for C$2 bln []
PRICES
Precious metals prices at 0017 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30 RSI
Spot gold $944.30 $0.20 +0.02% +5.27% $860.10 50
Spot silver $14.28 -$0.02 -0.14% +19.20% $11.29 55
Spot plat $1229.50 -$2.50 -0.20% -0.77% $1234.10 45
COMEX gold $945.70 $1.20 +0.13% +0.36% $947.76 50
TOCOM gold 2,867 -13 -0.45% +0.03% 2,898 45
TOCOM plat 3,733 -42 -1.11% -0.88% 3,731 45
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.424 -$0.001 -0.06% -0.39%
Dlr/yen 94.07 -0.17 -0.18% -0.11%
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Joseph Radford)
