SINGAPORE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Gold traded steady on Tuesday,
striving to extend gains into a third straight session as
investors expect the European Central Bank to take actions to
contain the region's debt crisis.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold inched up 60 cents to $1,610.99 an ounce
by 0038 GMT, after two sessions of consecutive gains.
* U.S. gold futures contract for December delivery
edged down 0.1 percent to $1,613.90.
* The sentiment in Europe's government debt market improved,
with two-year Spanish yields falling to less than half the level
in late July, as investors expect the European Central Bank to
eventually buy short-dated bonds.
* The majority of Wall Street dealers expect the U.S.
Federal Reserve to launch another round of quantitative easing
as soon as September, though a top Fed official said new
stimulus measures so close to a presidential election would be a
mistake.
* Holdings of the iShares Silver Trust, the world's
largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, inched down to
9,742.43 tonnes on Aug. 3, from 9,759.01 tonnes hit last week --
the highest since late June.
* Spot silver lost 0.1 percent to $27.83.
* Spot platinum, which hit a four-week high of
$1,437.99 in the previous session, was trading at $1,395.75.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks closed at three-month highs for the second day
in a row on Monday, extending last week's rally on the hope for
more assistance for the troubled euro zone.
* The euro and commodity currencies held near multi-week
highs on Tuesday, though a lack of fresh news out of the euro
zone and a dearth of major economic data led to a draining of
momentum from the market.
DATA/EVENTS
0430 Australia RBA cash rate Aug
0800 Italy Industrial output yy WDA Jun
0900 Italy GDP prelim yy Jul
1145 U.S. ICSC chain stores yy Weekly
2350 Japan Bank lending yy Jul
PRICES
Precious metals prices 0038 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1610.99 0.60 +0.04 3.02
Spot Silver 27.83 -0.03 -0.11 0.51
Spot Platinum 1395.75 0.35 +0.03 0.20
Spot Palladium 576.72 1.92 +0.33 -11.61
COMEX GOLD DEC2 1613.90 -2.30 -0.14 3.01 812
COMEX SILVER SEP2 27.79 -0.07 -0.26 -0.45 241
Euro/Dollar 1.2389
Dollar/Yen 78.18
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Himani Sarkar)