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Gold holds below $1 300, fund outflow weighs

Singapore - Gold held steady below $1 300 an ounce on Tuesday, although a strong dollar and the first outflow in more than a week from the world's top bullion fund weighed on sentiment.

Gold has recently been hurt by US economic data as a strong recovery could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, diminishing the appeal of non-interest bearing assets such as bullion.

Spot gold was little changed at $1 288.84 an ounce by 05:37, after slipping 0.4% in the previous session. US gold was up $1 at $1 289.90.

The dollar was pressured by a fall in US bond yields on Tuesday but it held near a ten-and-a-half month peak, making dollar-denominated gold more expensive for holders of others currencies.

"While many geopolitical hotspots are on the boil, none have managed to keep any sort of bid underneath gold for long," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir said.

"We suspect that while political outbreaks provide the occasional jolt, it is the economic crises that seem to have more long-lasting impact. Over the course of August, we see prices trading between $1 260 and $1 320."

Markets were eyeing data on factory orders and ISM-non manufacturing PMI due on Tuesday for further clues about the US economy.

Data last week was mixed, with the second-quarter gross domestic product rebounding sharply even as jobs growth in July slowed down.

In a measure of investor sentiment, SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.79 tonnes to 800.05 tonnes on Monday - the first drop since July 24.

Gold failed to receive strong safe-haven bids as Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement agreed on Monday to an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire to end four weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The physical markets have also failed to provide strong support as buying interest has been sluggish globally.

Perth Mint's sales of gold and silver dropped to a three-month low in July as increasing optimism about the global economy curbed appetite for bullion, according to the most recent data on its website.

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