PRECIOUS-Gold steadies as risk sentiment sours on virus threat

(Adds market details, analyst comments, updates prices)
* ECB holds rates
* Jitters over China virus push equities lower
* Spot gold biased to revisit low of $1,545.96/oz
-technicals

By Diptendu Lahiri
Jan 23 (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Thursday as sentiment
for riskier assets soured on jitters over a virus outbreak in
China, although the safe-haven metal held a tight range as
investors awaited further catalysts.
Spot gold XAU= was down 0.1% at $1,560.78 per ounce by
10:44 a.m. EST (1544 GMT). U.S. gold futures GCcv1 rose 0.3%
to $1,560.50 per ounce.
"Equities are slightly softer so that is stoking some
interest in the metal," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market
strategist at RJO Futures. "But absence of any geopolitical risk
in the short term is keeping gold prices in check. The European
Central Bank meeting did not move the needle too much."
U.S. stocks opened lower on Thursday on rising worries over
the coronavirus outbreak in China that prompted a lockdown of
two cities in the country while a mixed bag of
corporate results added to the dour sentiment. .N
Traders remained anxious about the spread of the virus as a
higher death toll could hurt one of the world's largest
economies, as occurred during an epidemic in 2002-2003.
However, OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley said the virus fears
appear to have been overlooked by the gold market.
"If regional investors were seriously concerned about
coronavirus, we would have expected gold to be higher and not
lower today," he said in a note.
Gold, considered a safe store of value in times of
political and economic uncertainty, climbed to a near seven-year
peak of $1,610.90 on Jan. 8 after an escalation in U.S.-Iran
tensions. It has held above $1,550 for the most part ever since.
Lingering geopolitical uncertainties and a low interest
environment across the board - reducing the opportunity cost of
holding non-yielding bullion - will continue to support gold in
the longer term, analysts said.
The European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at
its latest policy meeting on Thursday and launched a "strategic
review" of its inflation goal and tools. Focus will now shift to the U.S. Federal Reserve's first
meeting of the year scheduled for Jan. 28-29.
Spot gold is biased to revisit its Jan. 21 low of $1,545.96,
looking shaky around a resistance at $1,564, said Reuters
technical analyst Wang Tao. TECH/C
Among other precious metals, palladium XPD= fell 2.9% to
$2,399.58, silver XAG= dipped 0.4% to $17.75 and platinum
XPT= was also down 1.1% at $1,001.09.