PRECIOUS-Gold climbs as Fed official says no rush to end bond buying

* Gold on track for strongest week in a month

* No rush to end monetary easing -Fed's Bullard

* Volatile Nikkei keeps Asian stocks on edge

* Coming Up: U.S. durable goods orders; 1230 GMT

(Updates prices)

By A. Ananthalakshmi

SINGAPORE, May 24 (Reuters) - Gold rose on Friday, on track

for its strongest week in a month, after a U.S. Federal Reserve

official said there was no rush to end the monetary easing

programme that has increased the metal's appeal as a hedge

against inflation.

Gold edged up this week as investors sought its safe-haven

status after the dollar and equity markets were hit by factory

data from China and the United States that showed the pace of

manufacturing had slowed.

Spot gold rose 0.16 percent to $1,392.96 an ounce by

0646 GMT, but was still within sight of a two-year low near

$1,321 hit in mid-April.

U.S. gold was little changed at $1,391.60.

Gold has been hammered this year, losing nearly a fifth of

its value, as investors favoured stocks and other risk assets on

the back of strong economic data.

"Gold prices will be stuck in a range for a while, trading

below $1,400-$1,410 an ounce," said Ronald Leung, chief dealer

at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.

Global financial markets were spooked earlier this week when

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank could

decide to start scaling back on its $85 billion in monthly bond

purchases in the next few meetings.

But Bernanke also said the U.S. economy had to show more

signs of progress before the Fed would make that move, helping

gold stay on track for a more than 2 percent gain this week.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Thursday he

did not think the Fed was "that close" to taking any such

decision, tempering the concern that the bank would move quickly

to end its easy money policy.

Bullard said on Friday that the U.S. inflation would have to

pick up before he voted to scale back monetary policy stimulus

and that this was unlikely to happen in the coming month.

"Despite Bernanke dancing around the question of when the

stimulus will be removed, at this stage, the move is more of a

matter of when rather than if. When it does occur, it could

knock out a key prop from under the gold market going forward,"

said Edward Meir, an analyst with INTL FCStone.

Dealer Leung said the Chinese had slowed down physical

buying ahead of U.S. durable goods data later in the day.

Buyers in China had been active earlier this week lured by

lower prices, helping to push premiums to record highs in Hong

Kong and Singapore.

Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest

gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell to fresh four-year lows

of 1,018.57 tonnes on Thursday.

Precious metals prices 0646 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume

Spot Gold 1392.96 2.26 +0.16 -16.82

Spot Silver 22.56 0.00 +0.00 -25.50

Spot Platinum 1457.49 -1.12 -0.08 -5.05

Spot Palladium 737.47 3.04 +0.41 6.57

COMEX GOLD JUN3 1391.60 -0.20 -0.01 -16.96 23027

COMEX SILVER JUL3 22.56 0.05 +0.21 -25.39 4034

Euro/Dollar 1.2939

Dollar/Yen 101.72

COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Editing by Tom Hogue and Himani Sarkar)

 
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Market Data

  • Currencies
    Currencies
    NamePriceChange% Chg
    1.2638-0.00-0.02%
    USDSGD=X
    1.63820.00+0.22%
    EURSGD=X
    1.91160.00+0.10%
    GBPSGD=X
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    SGDMYR=X
    7,737.67925.94+0.08%
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    4.8523-0.00-0.05%
    SGDCNY=X
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    AUDSGD=X
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    Commodities
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    GCM13.CMX
    22.40-0.11-0.48%
    SIN13.CMX
    101.85
    ^XAU
    3.300.00+0.02%
    HGN13.CMX
    93.90-0.35-0.37%
    CLN13.NYM
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    Bonds
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    0.89
    ^FVX
    2.02
    ^TNX
    3.20
    ^TYX

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    C52.SI
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    5RJ.SI
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    I26.SI
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    5HC.SI
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    5GC.SI
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    N6H.SI
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    S48.SI
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    543.SI
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    Z75.SI
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    H20.SI
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    C52.SI