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PRECIOUS-Gold bounces off lows hit after Macron wins French election

Published 09/05/2017, 04:44 am
Updated 09/05/2017, 04:50 am
© Reuters.  PRECIOUS-Gold bounces off lows hit after Macron wins French election
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* Gold edges up from seven-week low hit earlier in session

* Euro reverses post-French election gains on profit taking

* Bullish COMEX gold, silver positions cut (Updates prices; adds comment, second byline, NEW YORK dateline)

By Marcy Nicholson and Maytaal Angel

NEW YORK/LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Gold prices bounced off a seven-week low on Monday as safe haven demand ebbed away following pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election.

Spot gold XAU= steadied after touching 1,224.86 an ounce, its lowest since March 17 and just above the 100-day moving average. By 2:24 p.m. EDT (1824 GMT), it was up 0.01 percent at $1,227.77.

U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled up 0.02 percent at $1,227.10.

The precious metal, seen as a safe haven, fell 3.2 percent last week, its biggest percentage fall since November as polls indicated a landslide for Macron.

"The result of (the French) election was pretty well forecast ... Last week we had some sizeable (long) liquidation in gold and physical demand remains pretty good right now ... I'm not surprised to see gold supported around current levels," ICBC Standard Bank analyst Tom Kendall said.

The removal of the political risk associated with Macron's rival Marine Le Pen - who had vowed to take France out of the euro - leaves investors refocusing on the pace of monetary policy normalization in Europe and the United States. MKTS/GLOB

The European Central Bank is expected to have more room to tighten policy as the euro zone's economic recovery gathers pace.

In the United States, data out on Friday showed the unemployment rate dropped to near a 10-year low, which is seen as reinforcing the case for a U.S. interest rate hike next month. rates dent demand for non-interest bearing gold. At the same time, a stronger dollar makes dollar-priced gold costlier for non-U.S. investors.

The economy's weak performance at the start of the year should slow Federal Reserve plans for further rate increases, now broadly expected to resume at the central bank's June meeting, St. Louis Federal Reserve bank president James Bullard said. money managers cut their net-long position in COMEX gold for the first time in seven weeks in the week to May 2, they also sharply reduced their bullish stance in silver by 25,602 lots to the lowest since January, U.S. government data showed late Friday. move came as silver prices fell to technically oversold levels.

"After the recent sell-off ... the bears remain in power. This dictates that longs should be very cautious," said Miguel Perez-Santalla, vice president of Heraeus Metal Management in New York.

Spot silver XAG= dipped 0.1 percent to $16.28 an ounce.

Platinum XPT= was 0.6 percent higher at $917 while palladium XPD= fell 0.4 percent to $807.97.

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