PRECIOUS-Gold eases on upbeat risk sentiment

* U.S. stocks open at record highs
* Markets await Lagarde's first speech as new ECB head
* Platinum hits over 1-month peak

(Updates prices)
By Asha Sistla
Nov 4 (Reuters) - Gold edged lower on Monday as investors
leaned towards riskier assets, driven by optimism on U.S.-China
trade talks and fading fears of a global economic slowdown.
Spot gold XAU= was down 0.4% at $1,507.71 per ounce as of
02:41 p.m. EST (1941 GMT). U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled
mostly unchanged at $1,511.10.
"For now, we are responding somewhat negatively to a robust
equity market. There's less interest to buy gold as a hedge, no
big reason particularly since equity markets have done so well,"
said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.
There may be no safe-haven demand for gold at least in the
short run, he added.
Wall Street's three main indexes opened at all-time highs as
tech stocks gained on optimism over a U.S.-China trade deal and
an improving domestic economy. .N
Washington and Beijing said on Friday they made progress in
talks aimed at defusing a nearly 16-month-long trade war that
has harmed the global economy, and U.S. officials said a deal
could be signed this month. Markets drew further optimism from U.S. economic data last
week that eased apprehensions of a slowdown fuelled by the trade
war. Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates for
the third time this year, but signalled no further reductions
unless the economy takes a turn for the worse. In Europe, the European Central Bank's new head, Christine
Lagarde, will give her first speech in the role later in the
day. Markets expect her to stick to an easy policy script left
by her predecessor, Mario Draghi.
"The overall backdrop for gold with the shaky global growth,
uncertainties related to trade tensions, weakening U.S. dollar
that remains in place as we're moving into 2020 - based on that
we believe that gold will be higher," said Julius Baer analyst
Carsten Menke.
Speculators increased their net long positions in both gold
and silver in the week to Oct. 29, data showed. CFTC/
On the technical front, resistance for gold lay at
$1,520.90 an ounce and then $1,525.00, while support was around
$1,505.40 and further, at $1,500.00, Kitco Metals senior analyst
Jim Wyckoff said in a note.
Among other metals, silver XAG= eased 0.3% to $18.04 per
ounce.
Platinum XPT= fell 1.2% to $934.75 per ounce, having
earlier hit its highest since Sept. 25 at $955.75
Palladium XPD= slipped 1.5% to $1,777.93 an ounce.
"Things will improve for the automotive industry next year
and that means catalyst metals will be in more demand so we
would not be surprised at all to see palladium move above $2,000
next year," TD Securities' Melek said.