PRECIOUS-Gold stays put as investors eye Fed meeting

SINGAPORE, July 31 (Reuters) - Gold held steady on Tuesday,
as investors cautiously await the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy
meeting later in the day which is expected to shed light on the
bank's stance on monetary stimulus, a key factor driving bullion
prices.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was little changed at $1,621.40 an ounce
by 0034 GMT.
* U.S. gold futures contract for August delivery
traded nearly flat at $1,620.70.
* The focus will be on the Fed's policy meeting to take
place on Tuesday and Wednesday, as investors anxiously wait for
a clear signal from the central bank on whether further monetary
easing will be launched any time soon.
* The Fed's counterpart in the euro zone will hold its
policy meeting on Thursday, under pressure from investor
expectations of immediate action after its chief, Mario Draghi,
vowed last week to do anything within the bank's mandate to
preserve the single currency.
* Economic sentiment in the euro zone fell to near a 3-year
low in July as the bloc's economy deepened its slump and
businesses became more pessimistic.
* Italy's 10-year funding costs fell below 6 percent for the
first time since April at an auction on Monday as expectations
that the European Central Bank may ride to the rescue of
vulnerable euro zone members spurred demand for their debt.

* The correlation between the dollar and gold stood at
-0.74, suggesting the strongest inverse correlation since
beginning of the year.
* Spot silver was also little changed at $28.12,
after rising to a 3-1/2-week high of $28.24 in the previous
session.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks finished mostly flat on Monday as investors
paused following the best two-day run this year, with central
bank meetings and a full load of U.S. economic data looming.

* The euro consolidated recent gains on Tuesday following a
slew of negative economic news, while high expectations that
major central banks were poised to add more stimulus helped keep
risk currencies like the Australian dollar at multi-month highs.

DATA/EVENTS
0500 Japan Construction orders yy Jun
0530 India Repo Rate
0600 Germany Retail sales yy real Jun
0755 Germany Unemployment rate sa Jul
0900 EZ Inflation, flash yy Jul
1145 U.S. ICSC chain stores yy Weekly
1230 U.S. Personal income mm Jun
1300 U.S. CaseShiller 20 mm nsa May
1300 U.S. CaseShiller 20 yy May
1345 U.S. Chicago PMI Jul
1400 U.S. Consumer confidence Jul

PRICES

Precious metals prices 0034 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1621.40 0.91 +0.06 3.68
Spot Silver 28.12 -0.02 -0.07 1.55
Spot Platinum 1414.75 4.30 +0.30 1.56
Spot Palladium 585.97 2.52 +0.43 -10.20
COMEX GOLD AUG2 1620.70 1.00 +0.06 3.44 115
COMEX SILVER SEP2 28.09 0.05 +0.19 0.61 501
Euro/Dollar 1.2262
Dollar/Yen 78.10
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Himani Sarkar)