(Corrects palladium day high in paragraph 12 to $441.75 not
$451.75)
* Gold seen solid but unlikely to rise to record
* SPDR Gold holdings steady at 1,111.922 tonnes
By Miho Yoshikawa
TOKYO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Gold rose on Monday to around
$1,100 per ounce after the dollar edged down, helping bullion
come off a one-month low hit in the previous session when
commodities dipped on President Barack Obama's proposal to limit
financial risk-taking.
Obama's plans to restrict banks or financial institutions
from associating with a hedge fund or a private equity fund,
which was unveiled on Thursday, caused stocks, the dollar and
commodities to tumble. [ID:nN21115923]
Some market participants said, however, that fears in the
commodities market about Obama's plan were out of proportion, and
that gold would rise again.
Wong Eng Soon, an investment analyst at Singapore's Phillip
Futures Pte Ltd, said: "It seems that the economy is improving
and ... commodities will be able to appreciate as a whole."
But he said gold was unlikely to repeat last year's stellar
performance, which took prices to a record high above $1,220 in
December.
"I don't think this year's gold price will be as high as last
year's ... because as the economy gets stronger we shouldn't be
expecting the funds to put their assets into a safe-haven asset,
they'll want to take more risks," Wong said.
Gold benefited last year from a rise in investor interest in
commodities as an alternative asset to stocks, bonds and cash due
to the economic downturn from late 2008.
Spot gold <XAU=> was at $1,101.55 per ounce as of 0605 GMT,
up 0.9 percent from New York's notional close of $1,091.65.
Bullion hit a one-month low of $1,081.90 on Friday, although
the dollar's decline provided some support.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery <GCG0> rose 1
percent to $1,101.60 per ounce, compared to the $1,089.70
settlement on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile
Exchange. It sank to a one-month low of $1,081.90 on Friday.
Industrial metals platinum and palladium also rallied on
Monday.
Spot platinum <XPT=> rose as high as $1,562.50 per ounce, up
1 percent from $1,546.50 in late New York, while spot palladium
<XPD=> rose as much as 2.6 percent to $441.75 from $430.50.
The two metals, valued for their use in automobile catalytic
converters, have been trading at multi-month highs recently after
the launch of U.S.-based exchange-traded funds backed by the
metals this month.
The dollar was down 0.2 percent against the euro. Traders
said the dollar could get a boost from some key events this week,
including the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting on Tuesday
and Wednesday, its first of the year. [USD/]
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust <GLD>, said its holdings stood at 1,111.922 tonnes as
of Jan. 22, unchanged from the previous business day. [GOL/SPDR]
As the market eased, noncommercial net long U.S. gold futures
positions fell 3.4 percent to 221,469 lots in the week to Jan. 19
from 229,342 lots, a weekly report by the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission showed. [ID:nN22174820]
PRICES
Precious metals prices at 0614 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1102.90 11.25 +1.03 0.66
Spot Silver 17.19 0.23 +1.36 2.14
Spot Platinum 1558.00 11.50 +0.74 6.20
Spot Palladium 439.00 8.50 +1.97 8.26
TOCOM Gold 3206.00 26.00 +0.82 -1.63 63999
TOCOM Platinum 4514.00 15.00 +0.33 3.04 27674
TOCOM Silver 50.40 -0.60 -1.18 -2.51 888
TOCOM Palladium 1275.00 15.00 +1.19 9.44 718
Euro/Dollar 1.4168
Dollar/Yen 90.12
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Additional reporting by Chikako Mogi; Editing by Michael
Watson)