PRECIOUS-Gold, palladium rebound, but set for sharp weekly fall

(Adds comments, updates prices)
* Palladium on track for worst week on record
* Silver slides 3%, platinum eyes biggest weekly fall since
2010
* Coronavirus infects more than 127,000 people worldwide

By K. Sathya Narayanan
March 13 (Reuters) - Gold rose slightly on Friday as
investors weighed the economic hit from the coronavirus outbreak
and as financial markets stabilized a bit after a rout, but the
bullion was still headed for its worst week in more than three
years.
Autocatalyst metal palladium also rose as much as 8%, after
having plunged nearly 28% on Thursday in a global selloff. It,
however, was on track to record its biggest weekly fall ever.
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.8% to $1,588.83 per ounce by 0703
GMT, having fallen more than 1% earlier. For the week, the
precious metal is down 5.1% - the most since November 2016 -
including Thursday's 4.5% slide.
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 fell 0.1% to $1,589.20.
"The recovery after panic selling across all asset classes
has supported precious metals too," said Jigar Trivedi, a
commodities analyst at Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers in
Mumbai, adding that fears over the wider spread of the virus
supported the metal.
European and U.S. stock futures are trading in positive
territory and some of Asia's deepest losses were recovered by
the end of a day where tight liquidity exaggerated
moves. MKTS/GLOB US/
"Across markets, we're seeing a bit of a risk-on, and it
feels counter intuitive to think gold as risk-on asset but if
you look at what went on in the last 48 hours, gold fell with
stocks," said DailyFx currency strategist Ilya Spivak.
Countries and central banks have ramped up measures to
cushion their economies from the pandemic, which has infected
over 127,000 people worldwide.
The U.S. Federal Reserve provided massive liquidity
injection on Thursday, having slashed it benchmark interest rate
last week. Palladium XPD= rose 7.2% to $1,962.97 per ounce, following
a steep fall in the previous session, but was headed for a
weekly decline of about 24%.
Palladium and platinum "are much more volatile and much less
liquid. So, the moves are just exaggerated ... but the reason is
basically the same," DailyFx's Spivak said, pointing to gains
across assets.
Platinum XPT= gained 4.1% to $794.28, but was down 11.5%
for the week - the steepest dip since 2010.
Silver XAG= was the only exception, falling 1.1% to $15.65
per ounce, having earlier dipped up to 3.3%.