* Soros cuts gold holdings
* Johnson Matthey upbeat on PGM outlook in 2011
* Coming up: U.S. October CPI; Nov 17, 1330 GMT
(Updates throughout with comment, prices)
By Amanda Cooper
LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Gold fell for a third successive
day to its lowest in two weeks on Tuesday as a stronger dollar
kept commodities under pressure, offsetting the lift to bullion
from concern over the Irish debt crisis.
While gold often benefits from heightened investor aversion
to riskier assets, it can often be caught up in a torrent of
liquidation as investors seek to plug losses elsewhere in their
portfolios.
This was the case in October 2008, following the collapse of
Lehman Brothers, which prompted a 17 percent drop in the S&P 500
<.SXP> and a 16.6 percent fall in gold that month.
Spot gold <XAU=> fell to a session low of $1,351.60 an ounce
and recovered to $1,353.70 an ounce by 1440 GMT, down from
$1,360.09 the day before. U.S. gold futures <GCZ0> fell 1.1
percent to $1,354.20 an ounce.
"Gold is a risk asset, we saw that post-Lehman Brothers,
when everyone thought gold would benefit and it sold off," said
Credit Agricole analyst Robin Bhar.
"People would liquidate, given that they've probably secured
good profits in the gold market ... and have taken some money
off the table," he said.
Gold, which is still up 24 percent so far this year, has
lost about 4 percent over the last week in the broad sell-off
that has knocked copper, crude oil and grains, which have in
turned suffered from mounting expectations for more monetary
tightening in top raw materials consumer China.
FUNDS COOL TO GOLD
Coupled with flows out of hard assets was a cooling towards
bullion from some of the world's best-known gold bulls.
The most recent quarterly securities filings showed George
Soros cut his exposure to gold in the last quarter, along with
Eric Mindich. []
"Commodities generally are on the back foot at the moment
... everything feels a bit on hold. We've had a pretty volatile
period over the last couple of weeks and things seem to have
blown themselves out for the time being," said Scotia Moccatta
head of precious metals Simon Weeks.
"Gold is wrapped up in the commodities story, which is often
the case in the short term and then it often recovers as a
currency afterwards."
Ireland came under intense pressure on Tuesday to request
aid over its debt crunch in what the European Council's
president called a "survival crisis" for the euro zone and the
wider European Union. []
The euro briefly turned negative against the dollar before
creeping higher for a 0.2 percent gain on the day after data
showed a sharp rise in capital inflows into the United States in
September and a separate report showed a surprise fall in
wholesale inflation. []
Yet several analysts echoed the view that the current
decline in gold prices would likely be temporary.
"Pressure on interest rates has in our view been one of the
key drivers behind the latest precious metals rally," said
Credit Suisse in a note.
"However, we view the current pullback across the sector as
temporary as we expect the fundamental backdrop to remain
favorable."
Gold priced in euros <XAUEUR=R> and Swiss francs <XAUCHF=R>
was largely unchanged on the day but up in yen <XAUJPY=R> and
sterling terms <XAUGBP=R>.
Spot silver <XAG=> was last at $25.45 an ounce, against
$25.42 the day before, having risen earlier to a session peak at
$25.85.
Platinum and palladium were both down on the day, in line
with other industrial commodities, shrugging off a bullish
outlook for the market next year from refiner Johnson Matthey ,
which said improving supply and demand fundamentals should bring
both markets broadly into balance next year. []
Platinum <XPT=> fell to $1,657.99 an ounce, down 0.6 percent
on the day. Palladium was down 1.7 percent at $657.97.
(Editing by William Hardy)
