PRECIOUS-Gold steadies near six-year high, silver jumps as growth risks persist

* Platinum rises 3% to more than one-year high
* Silver still has room to move higher - analyst
* SPDR Gold holdings up 6.6% so far in August
* U.S. Fed, ECB expected to cut rates next month

(Updates prices)
By Brijesh Patel
Aug 29 (Reuters) - Gold steadied near a six-year peak on
Thursday and silver rose to its highest in more than two years
as fears of a global recession, exacerbated by the protracted
U.S.-China trade war, drove interest for safe haven assets.
Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,539.02 an ounce by
1208 GMT. Prices rose to their highest since April 2013 on
Monday at $1,554.56 an ounce.
U.S. gold futures GCv1 were down 0.2% at $1,546.10.
"Markets are waiting for the next step in terms of trade
talks between U.S. and China. Until then, uncertainties continue
to be fairly supportive for safe-haven assets, particularly
precious metals," ING analyst Warren Patterson said.
Silver XAG= rose 1.2% to $18.55 per ounce after hitting
its highest since April 2017 at $18.64 earlier in the session.
"If you look at the gold-silver ratio, silver is still
relatively cheap. It looks like it still has some more room to
move higher," Patterson said.
On Wednesday, Washington made official its extra 5% tariff
on $300 billion in Chinese imports, and set collection dates of
Sept. 1 and Dec. 15.
But gold's advance was limited by comments from China's
Commerce Ministry, which said on Thursday both sides "should
create conditions" for progress in negotiations and that China
was against escalating the trade war. "We still feel the momentum remains to the topside (for
gold) in the longer term, given global central bank easing, a
likely prolonged period of trade unrest and a host of
geopolitical headwinds," MKS PAMP said in a note, citing Brexit,
Iran tensions and Argentina's financial challenges.
Adding to uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit from the
European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would
suspend parliament for more than a month before the Brexit
deadline of Oct. 31. Amid increasing signs of a global slowdown, the U.S. Federal
Reserve and the European Central bank are widely expected to cut
rates next month, while many investors believe the Bank of Japan
could follow suit. MKTS/GLOB
Also, yields on 30-year U.S. Treasuries and 10-year German
Bunds hit record lows on Wednesday, while the U.S. Treasury
yield curve remains inverted, commonly considered a sign of an
impending recession. US/
These factors have added to the appeal of gold, considered a
safe investment in times of political and financial uncertainty.
Holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, have increased by 6.6% this
month. GOL/ETF
In other metals, platinum XPT= jumped 2.8% to $924.94, its
highest since May 2018, and palladium XPD= gained 1% to
$1,483.39 per ounce.