MANILA, July 21 (Reuters) - Gold held near its lowest level
in more than five years early on Tuesday after tumbling more
than 4 percent the session before in an early-Asia rout, pulling
bullion below the key $1,100 support.
Monday's selloff began shortly after the Shanghai Gold
Exchange opened trading when liquidity was thin and investors
are eyeing the bourse for any further selling pressure.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was up 0.3 percent at $1,100 an ounce by
0026 GMT, after an early low of $1,096.65. The metal fell as far
as $1,088.05 on Monday, its weakest since March 2010.
* U.S. gold for August delivery GCcv1 slipped 0.7 percent
to $1,099 an ounce.
* A lack of liquidity hastened gold's 4 percent slide in a
matter of minutes on Monday after a record 3.3 million lots of
the metal, or 33 tonnes, traded on a key Shanghai physical
contract, as top consumer China appears to be shunning bullion.
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* Investors have found less and less reason to hold bullion
as a safe haven, with the dollar strengthening ahead of what is
expected to be the first increase in U.S. interest rates for
nearly a decade.
* Gold's slide has helped wipe out half the gains from the
last decade's historic bull run, taking prices back to a key
chart level and threatening a break towards $1,000 an ounce.
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* CME Group Inc CME.O briefly halted trading in U.S. gold
futures twice, 20 seconds each time, on Sunday evening as prices
plunged. ID:nL1N100174
* Bullion's slide sent shares of big gold miners into
freefall for a third straight trading day with Barrick Gold
ABX.TO the worst hit and falling more than 10 percent on the
New York Stock Exchange to the lowest levels since 1989.
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MARKET NEWS
* Asian shares were steady while the dollar hovered near
five-week highs versus the yen after a top Federal Reserve
official added to expectations that U.S. interest rates could be
hiked as early as September. MKTS/GLOB USD/
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
1255 U.S. Weekly Redbook retail sales