* Gold consolidates; physical buying supports
* Spot gold may fall to $1,355-technicals []
* Coming up: U.S. non-farm payrolls, Dec; 1330 GMT
(Adds details, comments; updates prices)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Spot gold hovered around
$1,370 on Friday, as investors wait for a key U.S. employment
report due later in the day for clues on the health of the
economy, as the dollar held firm.
Some economists raised their forecast, after Thursday's
ADP report showed a surprise jump in private jobs number for
December. A Reuters poll showed that payrolls likely increased
by 175,000 in December, revised up from 140,000. []
"Gold is probably consolidating ahead of the non-farm
payrolls data," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at
Investec Australia.
"If we see a weaker number, it would be negative for the
dollar and positive for gold. Unless the number is much
stronger than expected, we probably won't see much move in
gold prices."
But some analysts said the non-farm payrolls number is not
always correlated with the ADP figures, and the dollar could
face some downside risk if the data turned out not as strong.
The dollar held to its gains on Friday, while the euro
fell to its lowest in nearly four months against the dollar on
growing worries about sovereign debt problems spreading to the
wider euro zone.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,370.35 an ounce
by 0344 GMT, posing for a 3.5 percent loss from the previous
week, its largest weekly loss since late May.
U.S. gold futures was little changed at $1,370.4.
A bearish target at $1,355 per ounce is unchanged for spot
gold as a downward wave "5" has not completed, said
Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst. []
For a 24-hour gold technical outlook:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/WT/20110701085955.jpg
Physical buying in Asia continued to give support, as
jewellers, bullion traders and investors are lured by the
current price level, some $60 below its record high of
$1,430.95 hit nearly a month ago.
"There is strong buying in Asia on physical market. People
are still looking at a good trend this year," said Ronald
Leung, a dealer at Lee Cheong Dealers in Hong Kong.
But buyers were a bit cautious ahead of the key data
release, which is expected to give a clear direction to the
market.
"Clients are waiting for prices to go even lower, then
they'll buy on dip," said a second Hong Kong-based dealer.
Spot silver edged down 0.3 percent to $28.96, on
course for a 6.1 percent weekly decline, its biggest since
early July.
Holdings in the world's largest silver-backed
exchange-traded fund, iShares Silver Trust , had been on
a steady decline since it hit a record high at 10,964.14
tonnes on Dec 14. It slipped to 10,892.87 tonnes by Jan 6.
Spot palladium inched down 0.1 percent to $757.47,
headed for a 5-percent weekly fall, after prices nearly
doubled in 2010.
Precious metals prices 0344 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1370.35 -0.80 -0.06 -3.46
Spot Silver 28.96 -0.08 -0.28 -6.16
Spot Platinum 1726.24 -2.76 -0.16 -2.33
Spot Palladium 757.47 -1.03 -0.14 -5.26
TOCOM Gold 3685.00 -7.00 -0.19 -1.18 31934
TOCOM Platinum 4693.00 -2.00 -0.04 -0.06 7166
TOCOM Silver 78.10 -0.70 -0.89 -3.58 1114
TOCOM Palladium 2050.00 -28.00 -1.35 -2.24 330
Euro/Dollar 1.2998
Dollar/Yen 83.33
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Ed Lane)
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