May 20 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Monday after four days
of falls, as a Sino-U.S. trade dispute aggravated by a Huawei
ban and U.S. President Donald Trump's latest threat to Tehran
fuelled interest in the safe-haven metal.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was up 0.1% at $1,278.06 per ounce at
0137 GMT.
* U.S. gold futures GCcv1 were 0.2% higher at $1,278 an
ounce.
* Gold fell to a two-week low of $1,274.51 an ounce on
Friday after data showed U.S. consumer sentiment jumped to a
15-year high in early May amid growing confidence over the
economy's outlook. * U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Tehran
on Sunday, tweeting that a conflict would be the "official end"
of Iran, as Saudi Arabia warned it stood ready to respond with
"all strength" and said it was up to Iran to avoid war.
* Aggravating uncertainty about Sino-U.S. trade, Alphabet
Inc's GOOGL.O Google has suspended business with Huawei that
requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical
services except those publicly available via open source
licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
* The U.S. must show sincerity if it is to hold meaningful
trade talks, China said on Friday, after Trump raised the stakes
by adding Chinese tech giant Huawei to a trade blacklist.
Meanwhile the Chinese state media adopted a hard-line approach
in escalating trade tensions. * SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest gold-backed
exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 0.4% to 736.17
tonnes on Friday from 733.23 tonnes on Thursday. GOL/ETF
* Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long
positions in COMEX gold in the week to May 14, the U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
CFTC/
* Share markets in Asia got off to a steady start on Monday
while government data showed Japan's economy grew at an
annualised rate of 2.1%, contributing to an improved risk
sentiment. MKTS/GLOB
* The Australian dollar was boosted against the greenback on
Monday following a surprise election victory by the country's
conservative government, while the yen dipped slightly on a
recovery in market sentiment. FRX/ * Gold was sold at a discount last week in India for the
first time in 2-1/2 months as higher prices deterred jewellers
and retail buyers, while currency fluctuations and economic
worries triggered caution amongst buyers in other Asian hubs.
GOL/AS