PRECIOUS-Gold ends flat as stimulus fades, euro zone eyed

* Cenbank stimulus gains priced in, technical selling weighs
* Gold to hit record average price in 2012 - Reuters poll
* Palladium suffers as China's monthly auto sales weaken
* Coming up: U.S. import/export prices, jobless claims
Thurs.

(Adds details, updates market activity)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Gold ended nearly flat on
Wednesday, as renewed fears about a worsening euro zone debt
crisis along with wider concern about the global economy
dampened the metal's allure as a traditional inflation hedge.
Analysts said that some investors could take profits after
gold had climbed for four consecutive months prior to October.
The failure of recent rallies to break above $1,800 an ounce
also triggered technical pressure.
The metal reached an 11-month high on Friday on hopes that
the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and other major
central banks would continue pumping money into the global
economy to stimulate growth, which has boosted gold's
inflation-hedge appeal.
"Additional monetary policy easing in the United States and
other countries is no longer fresh news, and so we do not
anticipate further significant buying of gold based on monetary
policy accommodation alone," said James Steel, HSBC's metal
analyst.
Spot gold was down 75 cents at $1,762.90 an ounce by
3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT). Bullion was still within reach of
Friday's high of $1,795.69, which marked the loftiest price
since November.
U.S. COMEX gold futures for December delivery settled
up 10 cents at $1,765.10, with trading volume on track to finish
sharply below average, preliminary Reuters data showed.
Silver climbed 0.5 percent to $34.01 an ounce,
boosted by better industrial-demand outlook as crude oil and
base metals recovered after their recent losses.
Bullion was pressured after the International Monetary Fund
said the euro area's debt crisis was the main threat to growth,
and the risks to global financial stability had risen in the
last six months, leaving confidence "very fragile."

The market largely ignored the Federal Reserve's Beige book
report of anecdotal evidence that economic activity is still
expanding modestly in most regions though pockets of weakness
and strained labor markets remain a problem for some districts.

Purchases of exchange-traded products (ETPs) reflected
investors' positive outlook for bullion in the long term.
Bullion backed ETPs rose to a record high on Oct. 9.

GOLD'S OUTLOOK BRIGHT
A Reuters poll of 27 analysts released Wednesday showed they
remained bullish on bullion in the long term. Analysts
unanimously forecast a record high average price of $1,690.00 an
ounce in 2012, up a touch from an estimate of $1,685.00 at the
end of the second quarter and $1,765 suggested in January.

Among platinum group metals that are mostly used as auto
catalytic converters, platinum fell on signs that industrial
unrest in South Africa, home to the largest platinum reserves,
was abating.
Spot platinum was down 0.6 percent on the day at
$1,668.74 per ounce, while palladium was down 0.5 percent
at $649 an ounce.
Palladium also fell after data from China showed a
decline in vehicle sales in September versus the year earlier
period, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM)
said on Wednesday.

3:21 PM EDT LAST/ NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL
US Gold DEC 1765.10 0.10 0.0 1758.50 1770.00 115,367
US Silver DEC 34.109 0.124 0.4 33.745 34.190 35,376
US Plat OCT 1676.70 -14.90 -0.9 1670.00 1688.30 16
US Pall DEC 649.90 -8.30 -1.3 647.40 658.20 2,278

Gold 1762.90 -0.75 0.0 1757.63 1767.80
Silver 34.010 0.170 0.5 33.740 34.130
Platinum 1668.74 -10.86 -0.6 1668.90 1685.24
Palladium 649.00 -3.50 -0.5 650.50 655.00

TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG
US Gold 122,731 170,691 174,029 16.14 0.12
US Silver 39,868 52,970 56,739 35 7.00
US Platinum 8,644 15,795 9,722 20.4 0.02
US Palladium 2,346 4,863 4,836

(Additional reporting by Clare Hutchison, Amanda Cooper in
London, and Rujun Shen in Singapore; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz
and Marguerita Choy)