* Gold eases in quiet trade as safe-haven demand ebbs
* Futures traders expect upward move in oversold market
* SPDR holdings unchanged, fails to support bullion prices
(Recasts, updates with quotes, closing prices, adds NEW YORK
to dateline)
By Frank Tang and Jan Harvey
NEW YORK/LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Gold eased in quiet
trade on Tuesday, but traders expected prices to rise in the
near term due to oversold conditions in the bullion market.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $889.65 an ounce at 1:43 p.m. EDT
(1743 GMT), down 0.3 percent from its late Monday quote of
$892.05 in New York.
U.S. gold futures for June delivery <GCM9> settled down
$3.80 at $892.00 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
Gold was pressured as safe-haven demand ebbed after strong
earnings from U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, but further
losses are likely to be limited by a spate of U.S. corporate
results, traders said.
Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity
Research, said positive results from Goldman Sachs suggested
the financial sector might be on the road to recovery.
"That of course reduces the need to buy gold as a hedge
against a collapse of the financial system," Fertig said.
Gold recently lost ground as the tone of the equity markets
improved and investors switched out of gold to move to other
asset classes.
However, news that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell 1.1
percent in March triggered an equity market retreat and boosted
the dollar against the euro. U.S. stocks broadly fell 1.5
percent.
Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded
fund, the SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, were unchanged on Monday from
the level reached last Thursday. []
Although SPDR's holdings are at a record, it has seen
inflows of only 70.86 tonnes in the last month against 185.7
tonnes in February, according to the SPDR Web site.
NEAR-TERM STRENGTH
Jonathan Jossen, a COMEX gold options floor trader, said
that gold bullion should rise in the near term because it was
oversold relative to the recent strong performance of gold
mining stocks.
"All we have had over the last few weeks was people
positioning themselves for a big move up. The interest is
definitely for the upside. I can see a move coming very soon,"
Jossen said.
While jewelry demand has suffered from high and volatile
prices, traders hope buying will pick up ahead of India's
Akshaya Tritya festival on April 27, an auspicious time to buy
gold, and as the wedding season gets under way in Turkey.
Platinum also softened on profit taking after hitting a
six-month high on Monday.
Firm investment demand was seen in platinum group metals
after news last week that London's ETF Securities had filed to
register ETFs backed by platinum and palladium in the United
States. The news sparked a 4 percent rise in platinum last
week, while palladium climbed almost 7 percent.
Worries over the future of U.S. carmaker General Motors
<GM.N> failed to pressure platinum, about four-fifths of which
is bought by the car industry for use in autocatalysts.
Analysts say bad news from the car industry was priced in.
Platinum <XPT=> was at $1,209.50 an ounce, down 2.2 percent
from its late Monday quote of $1,236.50, while palladium <XPD=>
was bid at $233.00 an ounce, down 1.7 percent from its previous
finish at $237.
Silver <XAG=> was at $12.76 an ounce, up 0.4 percent from
its previous finish of $12.71.
(Additional reporting by Pratima Desai; editing by Jim
Marshall)
