* U.S. retail sales rise unexpectedly in April
* Major ETP gold holdings resume selling after gain
* Hedge funds' 1st-qtr holdings and CPI data later in week
* Coming up: U.S. import, export prices Tuesday
(Updates prices, adds market details)
By Frank Tang and Clara Denina
NEW YORK/LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Gold fell 1 percent on
Monday, hovering near its lowest price in two weeks as stronger
U.S. retail sales data inspired economic hopes and reduced the
safe-haven bid for gold.
Bullion fell for a third session after the Commerce
Department said U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in April,
pointing to underlying strength in the economy.
Exchange-traded products liquidated more gold holdings on
the data.
A 1 percent decline in crude oil prices also reduced gold's
inflation-hedge appeal.
Holdings in major gold-backed exchange-traded products (ETP)
monitored by Reuters fell 0.3 percent. On
Friday, they had posted the first daily inflow in nearly two
months.
"In our view, there is greater risk of physical demand
slowing further, rather than sizeable ETP inflows, thus posing
downside risk to prices in the near term," said Suki Cooper,
precious metals strategist at Barclays Capital.
Spot gold dropped 1.1 percent to $1,431.49 an ounce
by 3:37 p.m. EDT (1937 GMT). Earlier in the session, it hit a
low of $1,426.40 an ounce, near a two-week low of $1,420.
U.S. gold for June delivery settled down $2.30 at
$1,434.30 an ounce, with trading volume about 25 percent below
its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed.
The metal was also under pressure as the dollar initially
gained versus the euro after European Central Bank policymaker
Ignazio Visco said if the euro zone economy needed more help,
the deposit rate could be cut to negative territory.
The dollar has since reversed gains against the euro but
edged higher against a basket of major currencies.
ETP OUTFLOW RESUMES
Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest
gold-backed ETP, fell around 0.2 percent to 1,051.65 tonnes on
Friday after rising slightly in the day-earlier session. The
holdings stood at a four-year low.
A report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
showed hedge funds and money managers trimmed their bullish bets
in gold futures and options in the week to May 7 on weaker
bullion prices and outflows in gold exchange-traded funds.
This week, gold will likely take trading cues from a busy
schedule of U.S. economic indicators including producer prices,
consumer price index and consumer confidence.
On Wednesday, investors will also find out gold investments
held by prominent hedge fund managers led by John Paulson at the
end of the first quarter. Funds and institutional investors are
required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission 45
days after the end of each quarter.
Among other precious metals, with silver down 0.9
percent to $23.60, platinum falling 1 percent to $1,476
an ounce. Palladium, however, climbed 1.5 percent to
$713.97 an ounce.
3:37 PM EDT LAST/ NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL
US Gold JUN 1434.30 -2.30 -0.2 1424.70 1448.30 136,921
US Silver JUL 23.696 0.038 0.2 23.470 23.840 29,489
US Plat JUL 1484.50 -1.50 -0.1 1477.00 1497.10 6,474
US Pall JUN 718.70 13.00 1.8 700.00 719.10 4,101
Gold 1431.49 -16.21 -1.1 1426.40 1448.19
Silver 23.600 -0.220 -0.9 23.540 23.870
Platinum 1476.00 -14.50 -1.0 1480.00 1492.00
Palladium 713.97 10.47 1.5 702.25 716.22
TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG
US Gold 169,223 221,546 178,351 22.37 -0.36
US Silver 33,765 79,065 55,078 28.52 2.01
US Platinum 6,691 12,084 11,803 19.76 0.01
US Palladium 5,663 5,392 5,018
(Additional reporting by Harpreet Bhal in London and Lewa
Pardomuan in Singapore; Editing by William Hardy, David Gregorio
and Andrew Hay)
