PRECIOUS-Gold hits 3-week peak as equities dip on Trump impeachment talks

* Palladium hits an all-time high of $1,675.50/oz
* Silver touches highest since Sept. 6
* U.S. consumer confidence plunges in September
* SPDR Gold Trust holdings at highest since November 2016

(Adds comments, updates prices)
By Brijesh Patel and Swati Verma
Sept 24 (Reuters) - Gold climbed to its highest in nearly
three-weeks on Tuesday, as calls for impeachment proceedings
against U.S. President Donald Trump pushed stocks into red, with
bullion getting a further boost from disappointing consumer
confidence data.
Spot gold XAU= rose to $1,527.40 an ounce at 2:26 p.m. EDT
(1826 GMT), having hit its highest since Sept. 5 at $1,535.60.
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled up 0.6% at $1,540.20.
"There are concerns around impeachment that may have helped
unnerve markets a little bit. We saw the U.S. equity markets
being pulled to and fro with the ongoing trade tensions," said
Suki Cooper, precious metals analyst at Standard Chartered Bank.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were set for their worst drops in
one month on Tuesday after U.S. Representative John Lewis, one
of the most senior leaders, joined other Democratic lawmakers in
calling for impeachment proceedings to begin against President
Donald Trump. .N "Over the course of trading today we have seen a combination
of concerns around the negative headline, political uncertainty
weighing on the stock market and in turn treasury yields come
off a little bit, and gold prices being boosted as safe haven
asset," Cooper added. US/
A weak U.S. consumer confidence data ratcheted up concerns
about the global economy, by falling by the most in nine months
in September, as the country's economic outlooks darkened in the
face of the U.S.-China trade war. Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to China's trade practices
at the United Nations General Assembly, saying he would not
accept a "bad deal" in the ongoing trade negotiations.
Concerns over the global economy have continued to mount of
late, with a survey out of the euro zone on Monday showing
business growth stalled this month while mixed economic readings
out the United States added to caution over the prolonged
U.S.-China trade war. "Fears of recession are growing in the Eurozone because the
weakness in industry now also appears to be spilling over into
the services sector," Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note.
"Gold was therefore in considerable demand as a safe haven
yesterday, as reflected in high ETF (exchange-traded fund)
inflows."
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust GLD, the world's largest
gold-backed ETF, jumped 1.6% to 908.52 tonnes on Monday, the
highest since November 2016. GOL/ETF
Among other precious metals, palladium XPD= jumped 1.2% to
$1,673.05 an ounce after touching a record $1,675.50 an ounce.
Silver XAG= fell 0.8% to $18.49, having touched its
highest since Sept. 6 at $18.74 earlier in the session, while
platinum XPT= eased 0.4% to $952.91.

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