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Gold prices steadied near $1,640 an ounce in Europe on Tuesday as a softer tone to the dollar arrested the previous session's slide, but traders largely stuck to the sidelines ahead of a key monetary policy meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Spot gold was at $1,638.30 an ounce at 6:05 a.m. EDT (1005 GMT) against $1,637.63 late on Monday, while gold futures for June delivery were up $6.40 an ounce at $1,639.00. The Federal Open Market Committee begins a two-day meeting on Tuesday at which quantitative easing is set to be discussed. The FOMC is expected to keep interest rates on hold, but its accompanying statement will be watched for hints of fresh QE. Ultra-loose Fed policy has kept interest rates and hence the opportunity cost of holding gold low in recent years. Expectations for ...

The Week Ahead Highlights QE or not QE? BOJ under pressure to ease No more support from the ECB Will the UK avoid a recession? Market Moves: Key Levels QE or not QE? The release of the FOMC minutes earlier this week and speeches by Fed officials have resulted in markets reducing their expectations of additional easing. However, today's disappointing jobs figures (120K in headline NFP vs. cons. 205K) have brought the speculation of more stimulus back into focus. To illustrate the extent of the negative surprise in the NFP print, the lowest estimate was for the addition of 175K payrolls out of the 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. QE3 chatter is making its rounds again in the markets and the US dollar has tumbled against most of the majors as heightened speculation ...

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK at 0800 GMT (EDT +0400) WORLD Subdued trading in Asia meant EURUSD was confined to a 25-pip range. The price action in USDJPY and AUDUSD was somewhat more lively, but flows were light across the board in pre-holiday trade. Newswires would have been mostly silent were it not for Japan‘s Finance Minister Azumi defending his intervention policy. He said that even if there were differences of opinion with the US on yen intervention, this would not affect Japan‘s stance. Asian equity markets were mixed, and did not seemly overly perturbed by yesterday’s sell-off in Europe. Meanwhile the shift in FOMC opinion continues. San Francisco Fed President Williams – traditionally a notable dove – conceded that the argument for a new dose of monetary stimulus is not that strong now. ...

Economic Data Analysis Cyclical Improvement Continues Outside Euro Area Muted reaction to Greek deal, but coming week's LTRO should be more positively received. Global PMIs to maintain improving trend, but Bernanke's testimony to down play gains. UK cyclical vs structural debate highlighted with soft lending figures, while PMI improves After weeks of anticipation, Euro area officials agreed a second Greek bail-out package. This should pave the way for the Greek PSI offer being made later today. Markets have hardly greeted the news with euphoria, concentrating on the clauses and hurdles stil l to be cleared, specifically the take up in the PSI debt swap and rising social tensions evident in Greece. Nevertheless, progress to date makes it less likely that we will see a ...

Gold fell on Thursday, pressured by the euro's slide to three-week lows versus the dollar after European officials postponed a decision on a bailout package for Greece, which fuelled fears the heavily indebted nation could face a chaotic default. Spot gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,715.59 an ounce at 1232 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $10.70 an ounce at $1,717.40. It remains up 10 percent in the year to date but is well off the record $1,920.30 it hit last year at a time that bad news from the euro zone tended to have a positive effect on gold, which some saw as a haven from turmoil in other markets. "Gold stopped being a safe-haven store of value some time around August or September, when you had a huge spike in prices, followed by a collapse," said ...

(Reuters) - Gold fell on Thursday, pressured by the euro's slide to three-week lows versus the dollar after European officials postponed a decision on a bailout package for Greece, which fuelled fears the heavily indebted nation could face a chaotic default. Spot gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,715.59 an ounce at 1232 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $10.70 an ounce at $1,717.40. It remains up 10 percent in the year to date but is well off the record $1,920.30 it hit last year at a time that bad news from the euro zone tended to have a positive effect on gold, which some saw as a haven from turmoil in other markets. "Gold stopped being a safe-haven store of value some time around August or September, when you had a huge spike in prices, followed by a collapse, ...

The Week Ahead: Greece Deal and 3 Central Bank Meetings on Tap Another action packed week awaits as we watch and wait for Greece and the troika to sign on the dotted line, and with three central banks (RBA, BoE and ECB) on tap. US data The US employment report on Friday was a very interesting one - but not due to the strong headline data. Rather, the internals show a very confusing picture that require a good dose of explanation, with something for both pessimists and optimists to latch onto. Our Macro Mads will enlighten us with a breakdown of why some of the internal numbers were so confusing with this report and how we should read them. The takeaway? The jobs report was about as good as touted and this was also somewhat corroborated by the strong employment sub-index in the January ...

(Reuters) - Gold rose in Europe on Friday and headed for its best weekly performance since early December after the Federal Reserve signaled a continuation of its ultra-loose monetary policy, pushing the dollar lower against the euro. Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,724.70 an ounce at 5:23 a.m. ET, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $1.90 an ounce at $1,724.80. Spot prices have risen 10 percent this month, recouping December's hefty losses. The precious metal surged towards $1,730 an ounce on Thursday after the Fed said it planned to keep interest rates on hold until at least 2014 and signaled it would be ready to take further measures to stimulate the economy. "After the Fed chairman's vow to keep the rates low until late 2014, strong buying interest was visible, ...

(Reuters) - Asian shares fell and the euro hit a fresh 16-month low against the dollar on Friday on worries that the euro zone debt crisis is crippling European banks, with players hoping U.S. jobs data later in the day will improve sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 1.2 percent and was set to end the first week of 2012 only marginally higher, after shedding 18 percent last year. Financials generally weakened as European woes hurt confidence, even though Asian banks are nowhere near as exposed to toxic euro zone assets as European banks. Japan's Nikkei .N225 also slipped 1.2 percent. .T European markets are expected to open little changed, with financial spreadbetters expecting London's FTSE .FTSE, Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI and Paris' ...