* Investors may cut longs across markets before holidays
* Gold seen facing resistance again at $960/oz
* SPDR Gold holdings <XAUEXT-NYS-TT> steady
By Chikako Mogi
TOKYO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Gold was little changed on Monday
after rising earlier as the dollar fell to its lowest this year
on growing risk appetite, with investors becoming cautious about
pushing prices above a key resistance level that has held for
most of 2009.
A recent recovery in risk appetite on better-than-expected
U.S. corporate earnings and data has prompted investors to pour
funds into risk assets, including stocks and commodities,
exposing these markets to a potential correction as liquidity is
likely to drop during the summer holidays, some traders said.
For gold, a lack of imminent risks that could prompt
investors to seek bullion as a safe haven and its failure so far
to break above a key resistance point suggest prices have limited
upside scope.
"Gold prices seem to be tracking the weakness of the dollar,"
said David Moore, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank
of Australia, noting how gold extended gains earlier on Monday
after rising sharply the previous session when the dollar slid
broadly.
At the same time, underlying weakness in demand for jewellery
fabrication and diminishing safe-haven demand for gold may be
tempering demand for bullion and keeping prices in a broad range
between $900-$1,000 which has held all this year, he said.
Spot gold <XAU=> inched down about 0.1 percent from New York
to $953.10 per ounce at 0558 GMT.
The dollar hovered near its lowest point this year against a
basket of currencies on Monday after higher oil prices, steady
global stock markets and U.S. GDP data boosted investments in
riskier assets. []
U.S. gold futures for December delivery <GCZ9> rose 0.02
percent to $956 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
"Gold may be exposed to the risk of coming down along with
other assets which have been rising, as investors tend to close
out long positions during the summer holidays," said Wakako
Harada, a senior trader at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
"Since there is no risk that investors feel they should avert
right now, gold is likely to be dragged down with other markets.
For much of this year, gold has not held above $955-$960, which
has become a psychological resistance level," she said.
Except for the two times in February and June when prices
jumped to around $1,000, gold has been spurned at around $960
this year.
In other markets, the CRB commodity index posted a third week
of gains, albeit increasingly mild ones, with the market now
stuck between its year low in the first quarter and its peak in
June, while Asian stocks were marginally higher on Monday after
ending July with double-digit gains.
Noncommercial net long New York gold futures positions eased
slightly to 172,771 lots in the week to July 28 from 173,302 lots
the previous week, the weekly Commitments of Traders report by
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. []
As the gold market remained rangebound, so did investment
flows.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the
SPDR Gold Trust <GLD>, said holdings stood at 1,072.87 tonnes as
of July 31, unchanged from the previous business day. []
The world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, the
iShares Silver Trust <SLV>, however, said its silver holdings
rose 61.21 tonnes, or 0.7 percent to a record 8,828.14 tonnes as
of July 31.
PRICES
Precious metals prices at 0603 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 952.45 -1.45 -0.15 8.21
Spot Silver 14.07 0.18 +1.30 24.29
Spot Platinum 1201.00 -6.50 -0.54 28.86
Spot Palladium 262.00 0.50 +0.19 42.01
TOCOM Gold 2907.00 24.00 +0.83 12.98 29195
TOCOM Platinum 3668.00 12.00 +0.33 38.31 9865
TOCOM Silver 428.60 11.30 +2.71 34.23 199
TOCOM Palladium 803.00 4.00 +0.50 46.00 448
Euro/Dollar 1.4233
Dollar/Yen 94.62
TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Miho Yoshikawa; Editing by Joseph
Radford)
