* Asian stocks touch five-week high
* Dollar close to four-week lows
(Updates prices)
By Vijaykumar Vedala
BENGALURU, June 7 (Reuters) - Gold slipped on Tuesday but
held near two-week highs as the metal was underpinned by
cautious remarks by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who gave
little indication about the timing of U.S. rate increases.
Yellen on Monday provided a largely upbeat assessment of the
U.S. economic outlook and said interest rate hikes are coming
but gave little sense of when.
After sliding more than 6 percent in May, bullion has risen
about 2.4 percent this month so far on diminishing expectations
of an earlier than expected rate hike. Higher rates could dent
demand for non-interest-paying gold.
Spot gold XAU= dipped 0.3 percent to $1,241.80 per ounce
by 0649 GMT. It touched a two-week high of $1,248.40 on Monday.
U.S. gold GCcv1 fell 0.2 percent to $1,244.40.
"The cautiousness of investors is probably temporary and we
would expect investors to take this opportunity to reload and
look at further gains in the coming weeks," said Daniel Hynes,
an analyst at ANZ in Sydney.
"There are some key data releases this week as well and
investors probably don't want to commit aggressively until some
of that data is passed. I think they'll be positioning for a
general move higher over the next week."
The Fed said on Monday that its index on labour market
conditions fell to the lowest since May 2009, reinforcing a
perception of slowing job growth following last week's
stunningly weak payrolls report.
Almost ruling out the possibility of a rate hike at the
Fed's meeting next week, two top U.S. central bankers Dennis
Lockhart and James Bullard continued to support the prospects of
a rate rise soon after.
"Janet Yellen's cautious jobs comments helped reaffirm the
view that the Fed may hold off from raising rates at next week's
FOMC meeting," said James Steel, chief metals analyst for HSBC
Securities in New York.
"In the near term, there may be more room to the upside as
market sentiment has shifted from favouring a near-term rate
hike to a more even split between those expecting a rate rise
this month and those looking for one later in the year."
Asian stocks hit a five-week high on Tuesday, while the
dollar wallowed close to four-week lows against a basket of
currencies. MKTS/GLOB USD/N
Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.03 percent to 881.15
tonnes on Monday. GOL/ETF
Silver XAG= was down 0.7 percent at $16.35 an ounce,
platinum XPT= fell 0.1 percent to $990.50 and palladium XPD=
was 0.3 percent lower at $555.16.