MANILA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Gold hovered near its highest
level in almost seven weeks early on Monday after scoring its
biggest weekly gain since January as worries over a slowing
Chinese economy spurred appetite for safe-haven assets.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,160.50 an ounce
by 0047 GMT, after touching a high of $1,165.11 in early deals.
* Gold rose to as much as $1,168.40 on Friday, its highest
since July 7. It gained more than 4 percent last week, the most
since mid-January.
* U.S. gold for December delivery GCcv1 was flat at
$1,160.40 an ounce.
* Markets will be watching for China's next move as signs of
a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy stack up,
raising expectations it will act to stoke growth.
* Data on Friday showed activity in China's factory sector
shrank at its fastest pace in almost 6-1/2 years in August as
domestic and export demand dwindled. ID:nL3N10S379
* On Sunday, China allowed pension funds managed by local
governments to invest in the stock market for the first time,
potentially channelling hundreds of billions of yuan into the
country's struggling equity market. ID:nL4N10Y096
* Federal Reserve officials planning to lift interest rates
as soon as September have been encouraged by solid U.S. jobs
growth, but inflation holds the key to how far the Fed can go in
moving rates away from zero. ID:nL1N10V1N7
* Top aides to the leaders of North and South Korea
negotiated overnight and into Monday morning in a marathon bid
to try to ease tensions involving an exchange of artillery fire
that has brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict.
ID:nL4N10Y02S
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TOP/MTL or GOL
MARKET NEWS
* Asian stocks and oil fell after Wall Street suffered
another bruising blow as deepening concerns over the slowing
Chinese economy continued to unnerve global equity markets.
MKTS/GLOB
* The yen climbed to a six-week peak against the dollar and
raced to a two-year high on its Australian peer as investors
sought the safety of the Japanese currency on heightened risk
aversion. USD/
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
1230 U.S. National activity index Jul