PRECIOUS-Gold falls 1% to one-week low after robust U.S. data

* Weekly U.S. jobless claims falls to three-month low last
week
* Overall orders for U.S. durable goods rises 2% last month
* ECB keeps their benchmark rates unchanged
* Markets eye U.S. Fed's month-end policy meeting

(Updates prices)
By K. Sathya Narayanan
July 25 (Reuters) - Gold fell 1% on Thursday to touch an
one-week low as robust U.S. economic data outweighed the
European Central Bank's decision to hew to an accommodative
monetary policy, with investor focus on next week's Federal
Reserve meeting.
Spot gold XAU= was down 0.8% at $1,414.60 per ounce as of
1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT), having earlier touched $1,410.77 -
lowest since July 17.
U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled down 0.6% at $1,414.70.
Earlier, prices rose as much as 0.5% after the ECB left
benchmark rates unchanged, with the bank's chief sounding the
need for a "significant degree of monetary stimulus" down the
road. "Gold sold off on good news out of the U.S. with the fact
that we are going into the Fed meeting next week," said Bob
Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
Weekly U.S. jobless claims number fell to a three-month low
last week, pointing to strength in the labor market, while new
orders for key U.S.-made capital goods surged 1.9 % in June. "However, these two numbers will pass by as the day goes on
and traders will be back to being focused on the Fed next week.
People want to be long heading into the meeting," Haberkorn
said.
Market participants are now looking ahead to the U.S.
central bank's July 30-31 monetary policy meeting where it is
expected to trim its interest rate by at least 25 basis points.
"The current global economic headwinds and a dovish tilt by
central banks globally is one of the most bullish environments
for gold," analysts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a
note.
"If the U.S. central bank disappoints on rate cuts, gold
could decline quickly, with volatility potentially exacerbated
by elevated long positions."
Among other precious metals, spot palladium XPD= edged
down 0.6% to $1,531.07 per ounce, while platinum XPT= slid
0.9% to $868.04, after touching its highest in nearly three
months earlier in the session.
Gains in platinum were due to bargain hunting as it is
cheaper than gold by about $550, with traders taking the
opportunity to narrow the wide spread between the two, RJO's
Haberkorn added.
Silver XAG= slid 1.2% to $16.39 per ounce. It has gained
about 16% since a near six-month low of $14.25 hit in late May.
"The key element that has been fueling the recent rally in
silver was the stretched levels of the gold-silver ratio which
suggested to many traders that silver was cheap relative to
gold," Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke said, adding that
profit-taking was now occurring.