* Gold seen to consolidate after sharp fall
* Gold to fall to $1,341 - technicals []
* Coming up: U.S. October retail sales; 1330 GMT
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Gold prices were steady on
Monday, after the sharpest fall in four months in the previous
session, as inflation concerns and sovereign debt issues in
Europe offered support.
Spot gold <XAU=> was little changed at $1,366.95 an ounce
by 0331 GMT, after falling three percent on Friday as talks of
an imminent interest rates hike in China triggered a broad
sell-off across the financial markets. []
Debt woes in Europe continued to brew, with Ireland on
Sunday saying it did not rule out the possibility that it may
have to turn to Europe for help in dealing with its debt
crisis. For related stories, click []
Leadership meetings of the Group of 20 and APEC held last
week largely failed to offer guidance on currency issues vexing
the global economy.
"G20 and APEC meetings last week didn't really give a clear
direction to the market," said Peter Fung, head of the dealing
department at Wing Fung Precious Metals, "The market is mixed
from here on, with today's range likely to be $1,350 to $1,380
today."
While some short-covering was spotted in the market, others
were seen liquidating long positions, as the market takes a
breather from the record-breaking rally, Fung said.
Also offering support to the market, Vietnam has abolished
the import duty on gold in another effort to cool domestic
prices of the metal after it has granted gold import quotas
last week, a state-run newspaper reported. []
Spot gold <XAU=> is expected to fall more to $1,341 per
ounce based on a bearish triangle pattern on the hourly chart,
said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst. []
For a 24-hour gold technical outlook, see:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/WT/20101511092702.jpg
"We may see some consolidation, but the overall trend is
still looking up, as the Federal Reserve's second round of
quantitative easing sets the tone for ample liquidity for the
first half of 2011," said Li Ning, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO
Futures.
"We have seen a quite volatile market in the past week, as
investors were nervous after prices hit record highs. We could
see gold pull back to $1,330 to $1,350 level."
CHINA CONCERN
Li said a major factor in the market is China. The world's
largest gold producer and fast-growing gold consumer, saw its
consumer inflation index jump to a 25-month high in October.
"While people are worried about inflation and have shown a
growing appetite to invest in gold, a rate hike would knock
prices down," said Li.
China should move to a more prudent monetary policy and
guard against risks from loose money conditions used to counter
the global financial crisis, a central bank researcher said.
[]
The prospects of further tightening in China, together with
euro zone debt woes, kept sentiment in the financial markets
fragile. []
Spot silver <XAG=> rose as much as 1.8 percent to $26.46,
before easing to $26.10.
Precious metals prices at 0331 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg
Turnover
Spot Gold 1366.95 0.60 +0.04 24.76
Spot Silver 26.10 0.11 +0.42 55.08
Spot Platinum 1672.74 -6.26 -0.37 14.02
Spot Palladium 675.00 -0.50 -0.07 66.46
TOCOM Gold 3642.00 -42.00 -1.14 11.75
67848
TOCOM Platinum 4501.00 -94.00 -2.05 2.74
16911
TOCOM Silver 69.60 -1.70 -2.38 34.62
2847
TOCOM Palladium 1800.00 -43.00 -2.33 54.51
1240
Euro/Dollar 1.3699
Dollar/Yen 82.65
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Editing by Ed Lane)
