PRECIOUS-Gold slips to near 7-week low as dollar firms

    Oct 3 (Reuters) - Gold edged down to mark a near 7-week low
early on Tuesday, as the dollar remained buoyed by upbeat
economic data and strong U.S. treasury yields.
       
    FUNDAMENTALS    
    * Spot gold        was down 0.1 percent at $1,269.50 an
ounce by 0101 GMT, after earlier touching its lowest since mid-
August at $1,268.60.
    * U.S. gold futures         for December delivery shed 0.3
percent to $1,272.50 per ounce. 
    * The dollar on Tuesday gained 0.3 percent against a basket
of major currencies        and was up 0.2 percent versus the yen
      .
    * A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity surged to a near
13-1/2-year high in September as disruptions to the supply
chains caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma resulted in
factories taking longer to deliver goods and boosted raw
material prices.             
    * The White House on Monday ruled out talks with North Korea
except to discuss the fate of Americans held there, again
appearing to rebuke Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who said
Washington was directly communicating with Pyongyang on its
nuclear and missile programmes.             
    * The Federal Reserve will need to "look hard" at whether it
should raise rates in December, but there is no need to wait for
inflation to actually get to, or even begin to rise back to, the
Fed's 2-percent target before doing so, Dallas Fed President
Robert Kaplan said Monday.             
    * The Fed's own actions, not transitory factors, are
responsible for weak inflation, a Fed policymaker argued on
Monday, and the U.S. central bank should wait to raise rates
again until inflation hits its 2-percent goal.             
    * Relatively calm market conditions could encourage the
European Central Bank to extend its asset purchase scheme for a
longer period but with reduced monthly spending, ECB chief
economist Peter Praet said on Monday.             
    * Factories across the euro zone enjoyed their most
productive month since early 2011 in September, and the momentum
looks set to continue into October as new order growth
accelerated, a survey showed on Monday.             
    * British manufacturing growth cooled last month as cost
pressures lurched higher, according to a survey that could put
the Bank of England a step closer to raising interest rates,
despite a murky outlook ahead of Brexit.             
    * China's proven gold reserves reached 12,100 tonnes at the
end of 2016, the state news agency Xinhua reported on
Monday.            
    * Gold miner Avocet Mining Plc         reported a 49 percent
drop in first-half revenue as the West Africa-focused company's
gold production declined.             

    DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT)
    
    0900  Euro zone  Producer prices           Aug 
    1345  U.S.       ISM-New York index        Sep 

 (Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph
Radford)