Gold edges up but dollar strength, stocks recovery cap gains

BENGALURU: Gold prices edged up on Tuesday, but the safe-haven metal's gains were limited by a firmer dollar and as Asian shares recovered from two-month lows.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold XAU= rose 0.25 percent to $1,276.70 per ounce at 0041 GMT.

* U.S. gold futures GCcv1 rose 0.32 percent to $1,278.30.

* The dollar firmed on Tuesday as a recovery in crude prices lifted equities and U.S. Treasury yields, and lessened demand for the safe-haven yen.

* Asian shares recovered from two-month lows on Tuesday after a rebound in technology giant Apple Corp and oil price gains boosted Wall Street.

* MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS ticked up 0.1 percent, extending the recovery from its two month low set on Friday. Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained about 1.0 percent.

* Gold has rallied 20 percent this year on speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve has slowed its expected pace of rate increases on concerns over the volatility in global markets.

* New York-based hedge fund Paulson & Co, led by John Paulson, one of the world's most influential gold investors, slashed his bets on bullion, while billionaire investor George Soros and other big funds returned to the metal for the first time in years, filings showed on Monday.

* The platinum market deficit is expected to rise to 861,000 ounces this year, Johnson Matthey said on Monday, as demand from autocatalyst manufacturers is boosted by the implementation of new Euro 6 legislation.

* The palladium market may need up to three years to consume its opaque above-ground stocks, according to Russia's Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM), the world's largest producer of the metal chiefly used in emission-curbing autocatalysts.

* The Fed should consider raising rates at its June meeting, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker told the Washington Post in an interview published on Monday, saying inflation was moving towards two percent and labour markets had tightened.

* China will push forward supply-side reform and increase the number of middle-income earners, state television quoted President Xi Jinping as saying on Monday, after economic data for April fuelled doubts about the economy's health.

MARKET NEWS

* Oil prices hit six-month highs on Monday on worries about global supply outages and as long-time bear Goldman Sachs sounded more positive on the market, although a stockpile build at the U.S. storage hub for crude futures limited gains.