* Gold to fall to $1,382/oz-technicals []
* Coming up: U.S. Mortgage index Weekly; 1200 GMT
(Updates prices, adds quotes)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Gold slipped below a lifetime
high on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar firmed, while silver
regained strength after holdings in the world's largest
silver-backed exchange-traded fund hit another record.
U.S. government bond yields rose, lifting the dollar
and weighing on commodities after President Obama
proposed a deal on tax cuts and unemployment payments that
could boost economic growth in the short term but raise debt
levels longer term.
Gold fell $9.21 to $1,391.65 an ounce by 0319 GMT
after rising as high as $1,430.95, matching a record hit in
the previous session. Trading was volatile on Tuesday, when
gold dropped after hitting the lifetime high on technical
selling.
But with the debt crisis in Europe far from over and
tensions in the Korean peninsula still brewing, gold could try
new highs again, which could lift other precious metals,
dealers said.
North Korea fired artillery into its west coast waters on
Wednesday, briefly pushing down nervous South Korean financial
markets but they quickly recovered after media reports said it
was only a military drill. []
"It doesn't look like it's bearish. We've just got a bit
of profit taking following the dollar. I suspect it will
resume its upward movement," said Darren Heathcote, head of
trading at Investec Australia.
"Silver is tracking gold's movements and is a beneficiary
of any positive sentiment for gold."
Silver hardly changed after rising to a 30-year
high at $30.68 an ounce on Tuesday before falling sharply to
hit a low around $28 an ounce.
The world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund,
iShares Silver Trust , said its holdings hit another
record at 10,941.34 tonnes by Dec. 7 from 10,816.69 tonnes on
Dec 6. For details of the ETF's silver holdings, click on:
http://link.reuters.com/wux96h
U.S. gold futures for February fell more than 1
percent to below $1,400 an ounce.
Spot gold is developing a bearish trend towards the
wave "b" bottom at $1,350.27 per ounce over the next few
trading sessions, and an immediate target will be $1,382,
according to Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities
and energy technicals.
For a 24-hour gold technical outlook:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/WT/20100812090926.jpg
The U.S. dollar rose in early Asia on Wednesday and looked
set to climb further in the short term, having powered across
the board overnight on the back of a spike in U.S. bond yields.
"I've some physical interest here and there but it's not
that much," said a dealer in Singapore, who trades gold bars.
"People don't seem to know how to react to the price
movements."
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust , said its holdings eased to 1,297.726 tonnes
by Dec 7 from 1,298.030 tonnes on Dec 3.
Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.7 percent on Wednesday, at one
point hitting its highest level in almost seven months after
the proposed extension in U.S. tax cuts helped the dollar jump
against the yen.
Precious metals prices at 0319 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1391.65 -9.21 -0.66 27.01
Spot Silver 28.61 -0.05 -0.17 69.99
Spot Platinum 1680.49 -8.01 -0.47 14.55
Spot Palladium 726.00 -3.97 -0.54 79.04
TOCOM Gold 3753.00 -31.00 -0.82 15.16 63881
TOCOM Platinum 4575.00 -36.00 -0.78 4.43 10133
TOCOM Silver 77.30 -2.80 -3.50 49.52 3236
TOCOM Palladium 1965.00 -62.00 -3.06 68.67 2195
Euro/Dollar 1.3224
Dollar/Yen 83.69
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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