* Gold pauses after hitting historic levels above $1,060
* SPDR Gold holdings <XAUEXT-NYS-TT> steady
By Miho Yoshikawa
TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Gold fell to below $1,050 per ounce
on Friday as the dollar edged up, snapping a rally that took
prices to all-time highs for three consecutive days.
Spot gold hit a record high of $1,061.20 on Thursday as the
dollar's weakness increased bullion's traditional appeal as a
hedge against the U.S. currency.
The dollar rose on Friday, with comments from Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke that indicated monetary policy might have
to be tightened as a recovery takes hold, helping to pull the
greenback off 14-month lows against a basket of currencies.
[]
Apart from its strong inverse correlation with the dollar,
fears of inflation have also fuelled gold's rise to historic
levels this week.
"I think gold's uptrend remains intact," said Shuji Sugata, a
manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities' research team.
Technical analysts at Barclays Capital have also said their
outlook on gold was bullish, with a push towards $1,120 now a
possibility.
"There are new participants that are being attracted to the
market now as it rises," Sugata said.
He said these new inflows of money could be seen in areas
including gold-backed exchange-traded funds and physical buying.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, said its holdings stood at 1,109.314
tonnes as of Oct. 8, unchanged from the previous business day.
[]
Holdings rose for four days in a row to 1,109.314 tonnes as
of Oct 7, once again approaching the record high of 1,134.03
tonnes marked on June 1.
Gold <XAU=> was at $1,046.25 per ounce as of 0244 GMT, down
0.7 percent.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> were $1,047.9
per ounce, also down 0.8 percent.
In industry news, some 500 mine workers resumed work on
Thursday at a mine owned by South African gold producer DRDGOLD
<DRDJ.J> while their colleagues at another of the group's mines
are also preparing to end a four-week long strike. []
Other precious metals prices, which have also been on the
rise, fell in line with gold.
Spot silver <XAG=> was at $17.59 down 0.7 percent.
Platinum <XPT=> was at $1,329.50, down 1.1 percent, while its
sister metal palladium <XPD=> was at 315.50, down 0.8 percent.
Both metals are valued for their their industrial
applications as auto catalysts.
PRICES
Prices at 0242 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1046.75 -7.25 -0.69 18.93
Spot Silver 17.59 -0.13 -0.73 55.39
Spot Platinum 1331.50 -13.00 -0.97 42.86
Spot Palladium 315.50 -2.50 -0.79 71.00
TOCOM Gold 3007.00 7.00 +0.23 16.87 43214
TOCOM Platinum 3826.00 25.00 +0.66 44.27 6682
TOCOM Silver 504.00 -0.50 -0.10 57.85 389
TOCOM Palladium 903.00 12.00 +1.35 64.18 346
Euro/Dollar 1.4727
Dollar/Yen 89.11
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Joseph Radford)
