* Dollar slide halts for now, keeping buyers sidelined
* SPDR holdings <XAUEXT-NYS-TT> up on Wed
By Risa Maeda
TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Gold steadied above $1,000 an
ounce on Thursday, having breached the key level on Wednesday
for the first time since Sept. 24 on the back of a weaker
dollar.
With the dollar having halted its slide on Thursday, most
gold investors stayed on the sidelines, looking for more signs
of a stabilising global economy that could increase appetite
for assets riskier than the greenback.
Technical momentum and concerns about potential inflation
lifted bullion 8.7 percent in the three months to the end of
September, its strongest performance since the first quarter of
2008, bringing it close to its record from March 2008 of
$1,030.80.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,006.85 an ounce at 0532 GMT,
little changed from the notional close in New York of
$1,006.70. Bullion hit an 18-month high of $1,023.85 an ounce
on Sept. 17.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> fell 0.1
percent to $1,009.3, after rising 1.5 percent on Wednesday.
Traders in Hong Kong were mostly away for a one-day public
holiday, while China's eight-day National Day break started on
Thursday.
"The gold market has already shifted its range, and I think
the upper side of the range will be $1,100 in the six months to
come," said Tatsufumi Okoshi, a senior economist at Nomura
Securities Co.
Stocks and commodities other than gold may have mostly
factored economic optimism into their prices, making bullion
relatively attractive, he said.
"Stocks are already on the defensive, bonds are too
expensive to buy and commodities other than gold have factored
in most good news into their prices. So gold looks a better
choice than other asset classes," Okoshi said.
Spot gold fell below $990 earlier this week. But the
precious metal got a boost from a sliding dollar on Wednesday
as investors put cash to work after U.S. data suggested the
world's biggest economy was recovering from recession. []
Investors also put money into gold-backed securities on
Wednesday. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded
fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings rose 1.22 tonnes
to 1,095.327 tonnes on Wednesday. []
It was the first rise since Sept. 21, when the holdings
rose by 15.256 tonnes to top 1,100 tonnes on a fall in gold
prices to around $995 per ounce.
The market focus is on U.S. jobs data due on Friday, as
well as banks' quarterly earnings later this month to gauge the
prospects for the global economy, analysts said.
Gold is expected to take a hit if and when equity markets
pick up momentum and when it starts to look like central banks
could end their easy monetary policies.
Comments from the E.U.'s economics and monetary affairs
commissioner that the E.U. should remove fiscal support once a
recovery takes hold, and that the euro group should discuss the
strength of the euro, bolstered the dollar against the single
currency on Thursday. []
Also, speculative positioning is a concern, with record net
long positions on the U.S. COMEX gold futures market for three
consecutive weeks.
Precious metals prices at 0536
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1006.85 0.15 +0.01 14.40
Spot Silver 16.61 0.02 +0.12 46.73
Spot Platinum 1292.00 -3.50 -0.27 38.63
Spot Palladium 293.00 -0.50 -0.17 58.81
TOCOM Gold 2925.00 37.00 +1.28 13.68
32269
TOCOM Platinum 3745.00 58.00 +1.57 41.21
9337
TOCOM Silver 482.30 7.70 +1.62 51.05
360
TOCOM Palladium 855.00 23.00 +2.76 55.45
211
Euro/Dollar 1.4626
Dollar/Yen 89.97
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by Michael
Urquhart)
