Sept 4 (Reuters) - Gold prices held steady near a one-week
high on Wednesday, supported by weak U.S. manufacturing data
that heightened fears of an economic slowdown and soured risk
sentiment.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was up 0.1% at $1,548.31 per ounce at
0121 GMT, having touched a one-week high of $1,549.80 earlier in
the session.
* U.S. gold futures GCv1 were steady at $1,555.6 an ounce.
* Spot silver XAG= climbed 1.5% to $19.51 per ounce, after
hitting $19.57, its highest level since September 2016.
* The dollar index .DXY was down 0.1% against a basket of
currencies, while Asian stocks dipped on global recession fears.
USD/ MKTS/GLOB
* U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned he would be
"tougher" on Beijing in a second term if trade talks dragged on,
compounding market fears that ongoing trade disputes between the
United States and China could trigger a U.S. recession.
* U.S. manufacturing activity contracted for the first time
in three years in August, with new orders and hiring declining
sharply as trade tensions weighed on business confidence,
raising financial market fears of a recession. * U.S. Treasury yields fell on Tuesday, with the benchmark
10-year yield hitting its lowest since July 2016. US/
* The U.S. Federal Reserve should cut interest rates by half
a percentage point at its meeting in two weeks to get ahead of
both financial market expectations for a rate cut and a global
trade war that has become a broader "reckoning" over how the
world economy is organised, St. Louis Federal Reserve President
James Bullard said in an interview on Tuesday. * ECB policymakers are leaning towards a stimulus package
that includes a rate cut, a beefed-up pledge to keep rates low
for longer and compensation for banks over the side-effects of
negative rates, five sources familiar with the discussion said.
* British lawmakers defeated Boris Johnson in parliament on
Tuesday in a bid to prevent him taking Britain out of the EU
without a divorce agreement, prompting the prime minister to
announce that he would immediately push for a snap election.
* SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest gold-backed
exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 1.34% to 890.04
tonnes on Tuesday from 878.31 tonnes on Friday. * Gold reserves held by Venezuela's central bank fell by $1
billion in the first half of 2019, official data released this
week showed, amid opposition accusations that the government is
selling the precious metal abroad to raise revenue in the face
of U.S. sanctions.