PRECIOUS-Gold prices firm on mixed signals on economy, trade

* U.S. stocks move higher
* Strong U.S. retail sales growth in July, other data weaker

(Updates prices)
By Sumita Layek and Arpan Varghese
Aug 15 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Thursday as lingering
fears over a global economic downturn and lack of clarity on the
U.S.-China trade front kept the safe haven precious metal
comfortably above the key $1,500 per ounce mark.
However, bullion's gains were limited as investors took
stock of mixed economic data from the United States, with strong
U.S. retail sales offering respite to battered risk appetite.
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.4% at $1,521.47 per ounce by 13:42
p.m. EDT (1742 GMT). U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled up 0.2% at
$1,531.20.
At the day's peak of $1,523.91 per ounce, gold was back to
within $11 of Tuesday's six-year high, which was followed by a
1% jump on Wednesday, due to fears of a recession as investors
fretted over the trade war, unrest in Hong Kong and a slide in
emerging-market assets.
"But with the U.S. retail sales data coming out as strong as
they did, that's seeing some market participants rethink their
bets," said Daniel Ghali, commodity strategist at TD Securities.
However, the elevated levels of safe haven interest in gold
fueled by factors such as the Hong Kong unrest and fears of an
Argentine debt default "is not likely to change in a single
day," Ghali added. U.S. stocks moved higher, driven by a surge in July retail
sales that soothed some nerves frayed by an inversion in the
government bond yield curve, historically a reliable signal of a
coming recession. [MKTS/GLOB/ US/
On the flip side, U.S. manufacturing output ended a
two-month run of growth in July, while initial weekly jobless
claims data was weaker than expected. Considered a safe store of value during times of political
and economic uncertainty, gold has gained more than $100 per
ounce since the beginning of the month.
"Although gold prices look like they are overshooting, it
has not been a good idea in the past to bet that the runaway
train is going to come to a halt," TD Securities' Ghali said.
Investors digested conflicting signals on the trade front as
well.
China's finance ministry initially said it would take
counter-measures against the latest U.S. tariffs on Chinese
goods, but this was followed by a separate statement that
Beijing hoped the United States would meet China halfway for a
consensus. "The overall uncertainty from the trade dispute is high and
we also expect some central bank action for recession-fighting
to come over the next weeks and months," said Norbert Ruecker,
head of economics and next-generation research at Julius Baer.
Elsewhere, silver XAG= was up 0.1% at $17.23 per ounce.
Platinum XPT= was down 0.2% at $838.78 an ounce and
palladium XPD= rose 1.6% to $1,446.72 an ounce.