(Updates prices)
* SPDR Gold Trust holdings highest since July
* Investors await further news on Sino-U.S. trade talks
* Palladium off record high hit in prior sessionBy Arijit BoseBENGALURU, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Gold steadied near a more thansix-month peak on Thursday as the dollar's slight recoveryoffset concerns about economic growth after U.S.-China talksfailed to provide clarity on efforts to end their trade dispute.Spot gold was little changed at $1,292.95 per ounceas of 1256 GMT, hovering near last week's peak of $1,298.42 - alevel last seen in the middle of June.
U.S. gold futures gained 0.2 percent to $1,294.40 perounce."Gold has a certain underlined resilience, which suggests asignificant portion of investors remain apprehensive to themacroeconomic backdrop and so they want to use gold as aninsurance," said Capital Economics analyst Ross Strachan.Concerns to economic growth continue to remain in the marketwith data showing that China's consumer prices and factory-gateinflation both increased less than expected in December, whileeconomic data in the euro zone has remained consistently weakerthan forecasts over the last few months. "So far this week, (gold) prices have failed to fall below$1,277 and are now trying to attack again the $1,300 level. Ifthey manage to reach this threshold, there would be space forfurther rallies," ActivTrades chief analyst Carlo Alberto DeCasa said in a note.Also indicating investor interest in gold, holdings in the world's largest gold-backedexchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , rose 0.3 percent onWednesday, to their highest level since late July. But limiting gold's gains was a firmer dollar, which edgedhigher against a basket of six other major currencies, havingfallen to a near three-month low earlier in the session. In other metals, palladium fell about 0.2 percent to$1,324.55 per ounce, after scaling an all-time high of $1,342.43in the previous session."There is always a potential for some profit-taking inpalladium," Strachan said."With the fact that reports on the trade front were a bitfurther away from an agreement than what appeared to be the casethis time yesterday, a little bit of the froth in palladiumprices is being removed."Delegations from China and the United States ended threedays of trade talks in Beijing on Wednesday, but there were fewconcrete details on the meetings, which were not at aministerial level, so were not expected to produce a deal to endthe trade war.Silver fell 0.5 percent at $15.66 per ounce, whileplatinum slipped 0.4 percent to $821.75. (Reporting by Arijit Bose in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans)
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