* Gold steadies ahead of expecgted strong U.S. payrolls data
* For the technical outlook for gold, click on
[]
* Coming Up: U.S. employment report for May; 1230 GMT
(Updates prices, adds details, quotes)
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Friday from
a more than 1 percent fall the previous session, as investors
eyed the release of U.S. jobs data for clues on the direction
of the dollar and the health of the U.S. economy.
While the U.S. currency has already firmed on bullish bets
for non-farm payrolls data, an increase in ETF holdings to
another record suggested the debt crisis in Europe has kept
gold's appeal as a safe haven intact.
Economists are looking for 513,000 non-farm jobs being
added to the economy, which would be the fifth month of rising
payrolls and the strongest gain since 1983. [].
Gold <XAU=> was at $1,206.60 an ounce by 0222 GMT, up 55
cents from New York's notional close on Thursday. It is still
3.4 percent short of a record of $1,248.95 hit in mid-May, when
fears that euro zone credit problems were spreading spurred
safe-haven buying.
"I think that it will be premature to say that the
safe-haven demand for gold is going to diminish. European
countries are still adjusting some of their fiscal
difficulties," said David Moore, commodity strategist at
Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
"A lot of those issues remain not fully resolved at this
stage," he added.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD.P>, said its holdings rose to a record of
1,289.839 tonnes as of June 3 from 1,268.539 tonnes in the
previous business day. []
U.S. gold futures for August delivery <GCQ0> fell $2.9 an
ounce to $1,207.1.
The dollar index <.DXY> was at 87.11, not far from 15-month
highs, while the euro <EUR=> held near a four-year low, with
debt problems and worries about the region's financial sector
still weighing down on investor sentiment. []
"Aside from the U.S. dollar outlook, safe haven demand is
expected to remain an essential component of support to gold
along with liquidity and inflationary concerns," BNP Paribas
said in a report.
"Uncertainty in European bond markets in May caused by
sovereign risk cast doubts over the euro's reserve currency
status, making gold an attractive alternative."
Japan's Nikkei average edged up 0.3 percent on Friday after
U.S. stocks gained following a late-day surge in technology
shares ahead of the jobs data. [] []
U.S. crude futures fell towards $74 a barrel on Friday,
giving back some of the gains of the previous day, when prices
rose after news of drawdowns on U.S. petroleum stockpiles.
[]
Precious metals prices at 0222 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1206.60 0.55 +0.05 10.12
Spot Silver 17.93 -0.01 -0.06 6.54
Spot Platinum 1541.25 -1.25 -0.08 5.06
Spot Palladium 449.00 0.50 +0.11 10.73
TOCOM Gold 3605.00 -35.00 -0.96 10.62
32239
TOCOM Platinum 4618.00 -40.00 -0.86 5.41
8887
TOCOM Silver 54.00 -1.00 -1.82 4.45
626
TOCOM Palladium 1340.00 -30.00 -2.19 15.02
245
Euro/Dollar 1.2165
Dollar/Yen 92.66
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)
