PRECIOUS-Gold steadies after jump to 4-week high

                                
 SINGAPORE, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Spot gold was flat on Friday,
consolidating after a rally the previous session driven by an
unexpected jump in U.S. jobless benefits claims.
                                
 FUNDAMENTALS
                                
 U.S. first-time jobless benefits claims unexpectedly rose
to their highest in almost six months, fueling fresh concerns
of a faltering economic recovery, spurring safe-haven demand
that bolstered gold and the dollar. [ID:nN1274714]
                                
 Spot gold <XAU=> rose 90 cents to $1,212.20 an ounce by
0015 GMT, just off the high of $1,215.25 hit the previous day,
its strongest since July 15.
                                
 U.S. gold futures <GCZ0> edged down $2.20 to $1,214.50 an
ounce, after rising by 1.5 percent on Thursday, its strongest
one-day gain since June 7.
                                
 MARKETS
                                
 The dollar index <.DXY> was off 0.1 percent on Friday at
82.557, after rising 0.4 percent on Thursday. It remains well
short of the July 21 peak of 83.451. [USD/]
                                
 Japan's Nikkei was flat on Friday after the poor U.S. data
and a sobering revenue outlook from Cisco <CSCO.O> sent U.S.
stocks lower for a third straight day on Thursday. [.N][.T]
                                
 Oil slid 3 percent on Thursday, marking its steepest
three-day decline since mid-May on fears that a hoped-for
economic recovery was unravelling. [O/R]
  DATA EVENTS (GMT)
  Germany   GDP flash yy                Q2   <DEGDFY=ECI>
0600GMT
  EZ        Eurostat trade, EUR         Jun  <EUTBAL=ECI>
0900GMT
  OPEC      OPEC Monthly Report         Aug      [OPEC/M]
1000GMT
  India     M3 Money Supply                  <INM3MS=ECI>
1130GMT
  U.S.      Consumer prices yy          Jun   <USCPI=ECI>
1230GMT
  U.S.      Real earnings               Jul  <USEARN=ECI>
1230GMT
  U.S.      Retail sales                Jul   <USRSL=ECI>
1230GMT
  U.S.      Michigan sentiment index    Aug-P  <USMN=ECI>
1355GMT
  U.S.      Business Inventories mm     May  <USBINV=ECI>
1400GMT
  U.S.      ECRI index                  Wkly <USECRI=ECI>
1430GMT
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 Precious metals prices at 0015 GMT
 Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg
Turnover
 Spot Gold        1212.10    0.90   +0.07     10.62
 Spot Silver        18.07    0.05   +0.28      7.37
 Spot Platinum    1520.25   -5.25   -0.34      3.63
 Spot Palladium    466.75   -0.25   -0.05     15.10
 TOCOM Gold       3365.00   66.00   +2.00      3.25      
18186
 TOCOM Platinum   4240.00   79.00   +1.90     -3.22       
5129
 TOCOM Silver       50.90    1.10   +2.21     -1.55        
127
 TOCOM Palladium  1301.00   30.00   +2.36     11.67         
58
 Euro/Dollar       1.2834
 Dollar/Yen         86.07
 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
 (Reporting by Michael Urquhart; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)