Gold edges up, but NAFTA deal weighs

BENGALURU, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Gold nudged higher early Tuesday, having dipped in the previous session as demand for riskier assets picked up after the United States and Canada reached an agreement to salvage a North American free trade deal.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold edged up 0.3 percent to $1,190.81 at 0121 GMT.

* U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,195 an ounce.

* The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was steady at 95.27 after touching a three-week high at 95.37 in the previous session.

* Asian stocks were steady as Japanese equities rose to a fresh 27-year high while crude oil prices were elevated in the afterglow of the North American free trade deal.

* President Donald Trump on Monday touted a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a win for U.S. workers, while investors breathed a sigh of relief that the key pillars of NAFTA had survived his hardball strategy to reshape global commerce.

* A measure of U.S. factory activity retreated from a more than 14-year high in September as growth in new orders slowed, but supply bottlenecks appeared to be easing, suggesting a steady pace of expansion in manufacturing.

* Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said on Monday that he sees no need to increase U.S. interest rates, given the “flashing yellow” signal from the bond market and the fact that the economy is not in his view yet at full employment.

* Growth in factory activity slowed across Europe and Asia in September, with export orders weakening before the latest escalation in the U.S.-China trade conflict, but was little changed in the Americas.

* Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) will pay $800,000 to settle charges filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it engaged in spoofing in gold and silver futures contracts, the CFTC said on Monday.

* India raised gold holdings by 6.8 tonnes to 579.92 tonnes in August, while Morocco lowered gold holdings by 18.8 tonnes to 3.28 tonnes during the same period, according to the IMF data.

* Holdings in the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust GLD, fell 0.28 percent to 740.17 tonnes on Monday.

* Top euro zone officials warned Italy on Monday its plan to borrow billions of extra euros to fund spending pledges could tip the bloc back into crisis, vowing to pressure Rome to change course.

DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT) 0900 Euro zone Producer prices Aug 1345 U.S. ISM-New York index Sep 1645 U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks on

“The Outlook for Employment and Inflation” before

the National Association for Business Economics

60th Annual Meeting (Reporting by Sumita Layek in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)