Aug 18 (Reuters) - Gold rose for a fourth day on Thursday on a weaker dollar after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's July meeting showed several members were cautious on hiking interest rates soon.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The minutes showed that members of the Fed's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee were generally upbeat about the U.S. economy and labour market, but several said any slowdown in future hiring would argue against a near-term hike. Spot gold XAU= was up 0.3 percent at $1,351.54 an ounce at 0106 GMT.
* U.S. gold GCcv1 climbed 0.6 percent to $1,356.70 an ounce.
* The dollar sagged on Thursday and the yen JPY= firmed 0.4 percent to 99.87 yen per dollar.
* The index of the dollar against a basket of six major currencies .DXY last stood at 94.622, hovering near Tuesday's seven-week low of 94.426 and having lost over 1 percent so far this week.
* The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Britain unexpectedly fell in July despite the shock decision by voters to leave the European Union, suggesting little immediate impact from Brexit on the labour market. Japan's exports tumbled in July at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis with a resurgent yen and weakness in overseas economies weighing on overseas shipments - a warning that Japan cannot rely on exports to drive growth. Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust GLD , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.46 percent to 957.78 tonnes on Wednesday. GOL/ETF
* CME on Wednesday lowered COMEX 100 Gold Futures (GC) maintenance margins for speculators by 10 percent to $5,400 per contract from $6,000 for August and September 2016. For the top stories on metals and other news, click
TOP/MTL or GOL
MARKET REPORT
* Asian stocks edged up early on Thursday and the dollar fell after the Fed minutes showed policymakers were in no hurry to add to U.S. borrowing costs. MKTS/GLOB
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0130 China House prices July
0800 Euro zone Current account June
0830 Britain Retail sales July
1230 U.S. Weekly jobless claims
1230 U.S. Philly Fed business index August
1400 U.S. Leading index July