* SPDR holdings unchanged at 8-month low
* Gold rebound lmited to $1,349-technicals
* Coming up: U.S. initial claims; 1330 GMT
(Adds details, comments; updates prices)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Spot gold prices held steady
on Thursday on slowing physical and fund demand, though cautious
economic views on the economy offered by the U.S. Federal
Reserve lent support.
"Physical buying has started to slow down, after prices have
gone up a bit," said a Singapore-based dealer, adding there was
also some profit-taking trades.
Physical demand in the region is likely to weaken after the
Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 3 this year.
"There is not much fresh buying, as people are not keen for
delivery after the Lunar New Year," said the dealer.
Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent at $1,347.69 an ounce
by 0322 GMT. U.S. gold futures rose by about one percent
at $1,347.1 an ounce.
Supporting gold, the Federal Reserve showed on Wednesday
that it was in no rush to cut short its efforts to rescue the
U.S. economy, saying high unemployment still justified its $600
billion bond-buying plan.
On the fund side, holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the
world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, remained
unchanged at its eight-month low of 1,229.581 tonnes, after
suffering its biggest one-day drop in the previous session.
"There isn't much room on the upside," said Li Ning, an
analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures.
"If we are seeing a mass exodus of large funds out of SPDR,
it probably means that gold prices will remain relatively weak
and investors are standing on the sidelines of the market."
Gold investors might have been allured by riskier assets,
such as equities, as economic outlook has brightened after a
string of upbeat data from the U.S. and Europe.
Spot gold may edge up slightly to $1,349 per ounce,
and form a peak around this level, based on its wave pattern and
a Fibonacci projection analysis, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market
analyst.
But analysts said gold is expected to build on last year's
stellar run to hit record highs in 2011, a recent Reuters poll
showed.
Platinum group metals have outperformed gold and silver so
far this year. Spot platinum edged up 0.1 percent to
$1,812.49 an ounce, up 2.6 percent year-to-date.
Platinum is likely to outshine gold in the medium term,
technical analysts said.
Precious metals prices 0322 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1347.69 1.33 +0.10 -5.06
Spot Silver 27.78 0.19 +0.69 -9.98
Spot Platinum 1812.49 1.99 +0.11 2.55
Spot Palladium 812.97 0.47 +0.06 1.68
TOCOM Gold 3573.00 41.00 +1.16 -4.18 29204
TOCOM Platinum 4848.00 90.00 +1.89 3.24 7491
TOCOM Silver 73.50 2.30 +3.23 -9.26 948
TOCOM Palladium 2153.00 80.00 +3.86 2.67 401
Euro/Dollar 1.3700
Dollar/Yen 82.11
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Ed Lane)
Reuters
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