PRECIOUS-Gold extends gains on softer dollar, U.S. shutdown

SINGAPORE, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Gold added to gains on Tuesday after rising nearly 1 percent in the previous session as the U.S. government shutdown entered its second week, moving closer to a deadline to raise the national debt ceiling and sending the dollar to near eight-month lows. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold rose 0.2 percent to $1,323.34 an ounce by 0014 GMT, after gaining 0.8 percent in the previous session. Platinum jumped for a third day on fears mine strikes in South Africa could hurt supply. * Glimmers of hope in the U.S. budget standoff surfaced on Monday, with President Barack Obama saying he would accept a short-term increase in the nation's borrowing authority to avoid a default. * The U.S. faces an Oct. 17 deadline to raise its $16.7 trillion borrowing limit. Failure to reach an agreement would push it towards an unprecedented default and roil global markets. * Gold importers in India, the world's biggest buyer of the metal, started processing orders to re-stock ahead of the peak wedding and festival season after the customs department cleared remaining consignments at a major airport. * South African labour union AMCU warned on Monday its strike at Anglo American Platinum could be prolonged and has the potential to spread to other major platinum producers. * Broad commodity exchange-traded products returned to favour in the third quarter, attracting some $712 million according to BlackRock data. But money continued to flow out of gold ETPs, which racked up $1.2 billion in outflows in September, taking third-quarter redemptions to $4.4 billion. * Chinese markets open today after the National Day holidays. * For the top stories on metals and other news, click , or MARKET NEWS * The dollar skidded to near an eight-month low, while U.S. stocks fell on Monday, extending two weeks of losses. DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0145 China HSBC Services PMI 0600 Germany Trade balance 0645 France Trade balance 1000 Germany Industrial orders 1130 U.S. NFIB business optimism index 1145 U.S. ICSC weekly chain store sales 1400 U.S. IBD/TIPP consumer confidence Precious metals prices 0014 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1323.34 2.05 +0.16 -20.97 Spot Silver 22.31 0.00 +0.00 -26.32 Spot Platinum 1395.50 3.20 +0.23 -9.09 Spot Palladium 701.50 0.50 +0.07 1.37 COMEX GOLD DEC3 1324.00 -1.10 -0.08 -20.99 948 COMEX SILVER DEC3 22.35 -0.04 -0.16 -26.25 447 Euro/Dollar 1.3580 Dollar/Yen 96.74 COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)