PRECIOUS-Gold holds near record as U.S. dollar suffers

* Gold edges up, holding near last week's record above $1,100
* SPDR holdings unchanged, net long U.S. gold positions slip

By Lewa Pardomuan

SINGAPORE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Gold edged up on Monday and
hovered near last week's lifetime high above $1,100 on a
falling U.S. dollar and after a weaker-than-expected U.S.
unemployment rate revived worries about the health of the
global economy.

Gold has gained as much as 25.2 percent in 2009, driven by
persistent weakness in the U.S. currency, and recently by the
failure of a meeting of the Group of 20 finance officials to
talk more specifically about the dollar's decline.
[ID:nLQ516726].

"The fundamental outlook for gold remains favourable. We
expect a renewed test of the $1,100 mark for gold prices this
week," Credit Suisse said in a research report.

Cash gold XAU= added $3.95 an ounce to $1,100.25 an ounce
by 0306 GMT, having hit an intraday high of $1,100.40 -- within
striking distance of Friday's record high of $1,100.90.

"We are in uncharted territory," said Darren Heathcote,
head of trading at Investec Australia in Sydney.

"The trend is still intact. We're still looking at a
positive gold market. (There) doesn't seem to be any particular
reason to be selling. I don't, therefore, see it falling much
below $1,100."

U.S. gold futures for December delivery GCZ9 rose $5.0 an
ounce to $1,100.7 an ounce after striking a record of $1,101.90
last week.

Japan's foreign reserves rose to a record high for the
third straight month in October partly as rising gold prices
inflated the value of its gold holdings, the Ministry of
Finance said on Monday. [ID:nT356250]

The dollar index slipped 0.23 percent .DXY =USD to
75.646, while the euro EUR= edged up to $1.4870, with a
statement from the IMF that the dollar remained on the "strong
side" despite a recent sell-off spurring another bout of
selling in Asia. [USD/]

U.S. employers cut 190,000 jobs in October, greater than
the 175,000 fewer jobs forecast, and the unemployment rate rose
to 10.2 percent, a 26-1/2-year high that was above average
forecasts of a 9.9 percent rate. [ID:nN06178752] and
[ID:nN06177960] "I think we are going to be looking for
more economic data to decide where we go from here," said
Heathcote of Investec Australia. "We're probably still trading
on thin volumes at the moment."

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust (GLD: Quote, Profile, Research), said its holdings stood at 1,108.344 tonnes
as of Nov. 6, unchanged from the previous business day.
[GOL/SPDR] Noncommercial net long U.S. gold futures
positions fell 0.2 percent to 241,319 lots in the week to Nov.
3 from 241,777, a weekly report by the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission showed. [ID:nN06206760]

"I don't think there's physical buying but sentiment is
still bullish because of a strong euro against the dollar and
also firm crude oil prices," said a dealer in Hong Kong, adding
that the market saw buying interest from speculators in the
U.S. Japan and other parts of Asia.

Oil rose to $78 a barrel on Monday to recoup some of the
previous session's near 3 percent loss on concerns that a
powerful hurricane would cut U.S. oil and gas supplies, lifting
gold's appeal as a hedge against inflation. [O/R]
PRICES
Precious metals at 0306 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30
RSI Spot gold $1100.25 $3.95 +0.36% +22.66% $860.10
77
Spot silver $17.52 $0.14 +0.81% +46.24% $11.29
59
Spot plat $1354.50 $12.00 +0.89% +0.89% $1335.55
51
TOCOM gold 3,202 44 +1.39% +5.36% 3,042
66
TOCOM plat 3,941 -1 -0.03% +2.79% 3,872
47
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.491 $0.014 +0.93% +1.30%
Dlr/yen 90.19 -0.14 -0.15% +0.62%
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)