SINGAPORE, May 16 (Reuters) - Gold fell for a sixth session
on Thursday in its longest losing streak since March 2009, after
holdings in exchange-traded funds fell to their lowest in four
years as rallying stock markets dulled bullion's safe-haven
appeal.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold had dropped 0.3 percent to $1,388.15 an
ounce by 0033 GMT after hitting its weakest since April 19 at
1,386.89 an ounce.
* U.S. gold eased 0.64 percent to $1,387.30.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed
exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.43 percent to
1047.14 tonnes on Wednesday from 1051.65 tonnes on Tuesday,
their lowest since March 2009.
* Premiums for physical gold in India, the world's biggest
gold buyer, have jumped sharply this week due to limited supply
after the central bank restricted imports to rein in a record
current account deficit.
* The United States will rigorously enforce "without fear or
fail" sanctions starting on July 1 that ban governments or
private companies from selling gold to Iran, a top Treasury
official said on Wednesday.
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MARKET NEWS
* Asian shares got off to a positive start on Thursday after
data showed Japan's economy accelerated in the first three
months of the year.
* The euro declined to its lowest level against the dollar in
six weeks on Wednesday.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0200 China Foreign direct investment
0900 Euro zone Eurostat trade
1230 U.S. Building permits
1230 U.S. Housing starts
1230 U.S. CPI
1230 U.S. Weekly jobless claims
1400 U.S. Philly Fed business index
Precious metals prices 0033 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1388.15 -4.14 -0.30 -17.10
Spot Silver 22.57 0.00 +0.00 -25.46
Spot Platinum 1479.25 -6.75 -0.45 -3.63
Spot Palladium 722.22 -2.28 -0.31 4.37
COMEX GOLD JUN3 1387.30 -8.90 -0.64 -17.22 6828
COMEX SILVER JUL3 22.55 -0.11 -0.48 -25.41 1250
Euro/Dollar 1.2884
Dollar/Yen 102.06
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Joseph Radford)
