Gold dips amid firmer Asian stocks

(Reuters) - Gold inched down early Tuesday after gaining nearly one percent in the previous session, easing as firmer Asian stocks marked a 10-year peak.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,280.24 per ounce at 1252 GMT. The metal jumped nearly one percent on Monday on geopolitical risks in its biggest one-day percentage gain since Sept. 25.

* U.S. gold futures for December delivery dipped 0.1 percent to $1,280.90.

* Asian shares touched their highest in a decade on Tuesday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edging up 0.3 percent in early trade.

* The dollar sagged on Tuesday, knocked away from an eight-month highs versus the yen down as Treasury yields slipped on uncertainty over whether the Republicans can pass their tax bill in a timely manner.

* A campaign of mass arrests of Saudi Arabian royals, ministers and businessmen expanded on Monday after a top entrepreneur was reportedly detained in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom's affluent elite in its modern history.

* U.S. President Donald Trump will step directly into the shadow of the North Korean nuclear standoff on Tuesday on a visit to South Korea in which his words alone could risk further inflaming tensions with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

* The Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirmed on Monday that William Dudley, among the most influential monetary policymakers throughout the financial crisis and its aftermath, expects to retire by mid-2018, raising another question over leadership at the U.S. central bank less than a week after President Donald Trump chose a new Fed chief.

* Republican lawmakers on Monday began revising their proposed overhaul of the U.S. tax code, as Democrats pointed to the loss of popular deductions as proof the legislation was an assault on the middle class.

* The European Central Bank should ditch its central inflation target and accept a less stringent one, as the current policy cornerstone has distorted markets and risks normalising interventions, its former chief economist said on Monday.

* CI Investments Inc sharply increased its holdings in the world's biggest gold exchange-traded fund during the third quarter of 2017, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 13F filing showed on Monday.

* The threat of a strike in South Africa put renewed pressure on Lonmin on Monday as Chief Executive Ben Magara sought to reassure investors that the platinum miner's underlying business was robust.

(Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin)