MELBOURNE, May 9 (Reuters) - Spot gold edged lower on Monday, as the dollar held firm after data showing improving U.S. wage growth offset an overall weaker payroll report, maintaining expectations of two rate rises this year.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= eased by 0.3 percent to $1,285.16 an ounce by 0008 GMT, having closed little changed last week as it consolidates within a $1,268-$1,303 trading band. Spot gold hit a 15-month top at $1,303.60 a tonne on May 2.
* U.S. gold GCcv1 slipped half a percent to $1,287.70.
* The U.S. economy added the fewest number of jobs in seven months in April and Americans dropped out of the labour force, signs of weakness that left some economists anticipating only one interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. But encouraging annual wage growth data helped the dollar to recover. USD/
* New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley who said two U.S. rate hikes this year were still a "reasonable expectation" also helped the dollar to rebound.
A run of Chinese data this week is expected to show activity moderated in April after a strong showing in March. A Reuters poll forecast a small drop in all-important exports last month. Hedge funds and money managers raised their net long positions in COMEX gold and copper contracts in the week to May 3, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. For the top stories on metals and other news, click TOP/MTL or GOL
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Friday as investors warmed to data showing U.S. wage growth in April despite weaker-than-expected jobs growth, while the wages data also pushed longer-dated Treasury yields higher. MKTS/GLOB
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0600 Germany Industrial orders Mar
0830 Euro zone Sentix index May
1400 U.S. Employment trends Apr