BENGALURU, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Gold prices were little changed early Monday, after falling 0.6 percent in the previous session, as investors remained cautious on reports that the United States is set impose a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was flat at $1,193 an ounce as of 0039 GMT.
* Bullion fell last week for a third straight week.
* U.S. gold futures were down 0.2 percent at $1,198.20.
* U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to announce new tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese imports as early as Monday, a senior administration official told Reuters. The tariff level will probably be about 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported, below the 25 percent the administration had said it was considering.
* The WSJ also reported Beijing may decline to participate in proposed trade talks with the United States later this month if the Trump administration moves forward with the tariffs. The dollar index .DXY was firm at 94.951, having bounced from over six-week lows of 94.359 hit last week.
* Gold prices have declined about 12.6 percent from April amid intensifying global trade tensions and under pressure from rising U.S. interest rates.
* The months-long trade rift between Washington and Beijing has prompted investors to buy the U.S. dollar in the belief that the United States has less to lose from the dispute.
* Hedge funds and money managers cut their net short position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Sept. 11, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday. Physical gold buying waned in major Asian centres last week as bullion prices rebounded from recent lows, with dealers in India offering the metal at a discount for the first time in over a month as an uptick in local rates moderated demand. India's August gold imports rose 92.62 percent to $3.64 billion, according to a trade ministry data. The prime minister of Democratic Republic of Congo will sign a decree in the coming days to designate cobalt and other minerals as "strategic" and therefore subject to higher royalties, Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said on Saturday. Rising risk aversion drove the biggest outflows in 11 weeks from world stocks and emerging debt over the past week, alongside a sharp increase in cash allocations, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC) (BAML) said. Canadian miner RNC Minerals RNX.TO recovered a 43-kg specimen stone containing an estimated 1,100 ounces of gold and a second 7-kg specimen containing 190 ounces from Beta Hunt Mine in Australia. AHEAD (GMT)
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New York Fed manufacturing
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