PRECIOUS-Gold steady in thin trade; eyes on euro zone

SINGAPORE, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Gold held steady on
Tuesday, with prices stuck in a narrow $15 range over three
sessions, as investors stayed on the sidelines during the
year-end holiday season watching for developments in the euro
zone debt crisis.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,603.29 an
ounce by 0032 GMT.
* U.S. gold was little changed at $1,605.20.
* Silver and gold speculators cut their bullish bets for the
third consecutive week in the week to Dec. 20, with silver net
long positions down by more than half, said the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission.
* The European Central Bank should launch a U.S.-style asset
purchase programme if economic conditions change, executive
board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said, opening the door to a
possible policy shift at the bank to combat deflation.

* China, the world's largest gold producer, churned out
31.75 tonnes of gold in October, bringing the output in the
first 10 months of the year to 290.752 tonnes, up 4.96 percent
from a year earlier.
* Holdings of the iShares Silver Trust, the world's
biggest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, declined nearly 1
percent on the day to 9,605.79 tonnes by Dec. 23.
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MARKET NEWS
* The S&P 500 turned positive for the year and closed out
its third week of gains in four on Friday as equities extended
their rally after a string of unexpectedly strong economic data.

* The euro was little changed against the dollar on Tuesday,
staying above an 11-month low as investors awaited an Italian
debt auction later in the week.

DATA/EVENTS
0500 Japan Construction orders yy Nov
1400 U.S. CaseShiller 20 mm nsa Oct
1400 U.S. CaseShiller 20 yy Oct
1500 U.S. Consumer confidence Dec

PRICES
Precious metals prices 0032 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1603.29 -1.67 -0.10 12.95
Spot Silver 29.09 0.04 +0.14 -5.74
Spot Platinum 1433.25 8.44 +0.59 -18.91
Spot Palladium 656.00 -1.99 -0.30 -17.95
TOCOM Gold 4017.00 10.00 +0.25 7.72 6871
TOCOM Platinum 3632.00 -9.00 -0.25 -22.66 2634
TOCOM Silver 72.30 -0.90 -1.23 -10.74 186
TOCOM Palladium 1657.00 2.00 +0.12 -20.98 77
COMEX GOLD FEB2 1605.20 -0.80 -0.05 12.93 1062
COMEX SILVER MAR2 29.08 -0.01 -0.03 -6.03 236
Euro/Dollar 1.3051
Dollar/Yen 77.88
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Himani Sarkar)