Sept 7 (Reuters) - Gold held steady early on Wednesday after rising as much as around 2 percent in the previous session, with disappointing U.S. economic data reinforcing expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise rates in September.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= was nearly flat at $1,349.20 per ounce by 0115 GMT. The metal touched a high of $1,351.84 on Tuesday, its best in over two weeks.
* U.S. gold futures GCcv1 were mostly unchanged at $1,353.60.
* U.S. services sector activity slowed to a 6-1/2-year low in August amid sharp drops in production and orders, pointing to slowing economic growth that further diminished prospects for an interest rate hike by the Fed this month. The U.S. non-manufacturing new orders index for August fell to its lowest since December 2013. The Fed's labour-market conditions index also fell in August, slipping back into negative territory after a positive reading in July.
* The Bank of England will wait until its November meeting before slicing 15 basis points from Bank Rate in an effort to cushion the expected blow from the Brexit vote, a Reuters poll found. The Sankei newspaper reported Bank of Japan policymakers were divided ahead of the central bank's Sept. 20-21 meeting, at which BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has said the board will conduct a comprehensive assessment of its massive stimulus programme. Strong exports and household demand drove economic expansion in the euro zone in the second quarter, but growth slowed from previous quarters on weakening inventories and investment, data from the European Union's statistics office showed on Tuesday. ABN Amro on Tuesday revised its gold and silver price forecasts for the year. Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust GLD (NYSE:GLD), the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 1.52 percent to 952.14 tonnes on Tuesday from 937.89 tonnes on Friday. GOL/ETF
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MARKET REPORT
The dollar took a tumble and Asian stocks rose to one-year highs on Wednesday after surprisingly weak U.S. services sector activity. MKTS/GLOB
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0600 Germany Industrial output July
0645 France Trade data July
0830 Britain Industrial output July
1400 U.S. JOLTS job openings July