PRECIOUS-Gold inches up; investors await policy clarity

SINGAPORE, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Gold inched up on Wednesday as
investors remained on the sidelines of the market awaiting clear
signals from policy makers for trading cues.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,612.89 an
ounce by 0030 GMT.
* U.S. gold futures contract for December delivery
was flat at $1,616.
* Investors are awaiting data from China later in the day,
including industrial output and fixed-asset investment, which
are expected to show the economy starting to stabilise after
reporting declining growth for six quarters.
* U.S. nonfarm productivity rose more than expected in the
second quarter as companies expanded output but only modestly
increased the hours worked by their employees, data from the
Labor Department showed on Wednesday.
* A second fall in German imports in three months sent a
worrying sign on Wednesday that even the domestic mood in the
euro zone's last bastion of economic hope may be weakening under
the pressure of the bloc's deepening debt crisis.

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MARKET NEWS
* The Standard & Poor's 500 just barely extended a streak of
gains to a fourth day on Wednesday, ending above 1,400 in
another thinly traded session.
* Investors took aim at the New Zealand dollar on Thursday
on the back of a disappointing jobs report, but held their fire
on others ahead of key data from China and Australia that could
make or break risk sentiment.

DATA/EVENTS
0130 China CPI yy Jul
0130 China PPI yy Jul 0300 Japan BOJ rate decision Aug
0500 Japan Consumer confid. index Jul
0530 China Industrial output yy Jul
0530 China Retail sales yy Jul
0530 China Urban investment (ytd)yy Jul
0530 India Industrial Output yy Jun
1230 U.S. International Trade Jun
1230 U.S. Jobless claims Weekly

PRICES
Precious metals prices 0030 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1612.89 1.60 +0.10 3.14
Spot Silver 28.05 0.06 +0.21 1.30
Spot Platinum 1406.24 1.24 +0.09 0.95
Spot Palladium 585.25 3.35 +0.58 -10.31
COMEX GOLD DEC2 1616.00 0.00 +0.00 3.14 1298
COMEX SILVER SEP2 28.01 -0.07 -0.25 0.32 311
Euro/Dollar 1.2373
Dollar/Yen 78.42
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Eric Meijer)