Gold dips, but remains on track for sixth weekly gain

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold edged down early on Friday with investors cautious ahead of U.S. economic data later in the day, but it remained on course for a sixth straight weekly gain.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was trading down 0.3 percent at $1,356.06 an ounce by 0106 GMT. Bullion is up about 1 percent so far for this week.

* U.S. gold dipped 0.3 percent to $1,358 an ounce.

* U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in June as small businesses ramped up hiring, and fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, suggesting a rebound in job growth after May's paltry gains.

* Britain's vote to leave the European Union could be significantly negative for the euro zone, dampening a growth outlook that is already facing headwinds, the European Central Bank said in the minutes of its June 2 meeting, held before the British referendum.

* Since Britain's June 23 vote to leave the EU, every piece of economic data, such as Friday's jobs report, comes with a question mark - how much does it reflect domestic economic developments and how much the short and long-term implications of an economic reordering that may take years to play out?

* Investors poured the most money into U.S.-based funds invested in precious metals since February, adding $2 billion to these funds in the latest week, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday.

* Asian shares were steady in early Friday trade with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei up 0.5 percent.

* The Perth Mint's sales of gold and silver products rose in June as investor appetite for safe-haven assets got a boost following Britain's surprise vote to leave the European Union.

* China's gold reserves stood at 58.62 million fine troy ounces at the end of June, up from 58.14 million at the end of May, the central bank said on Thursday.

* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.42 percent to 978.29 tonnes on Thursday from 982.44 tonnes on Wednesday.

* The largest union in South Africa's platinum industry said on Thursday it would be demanding higher wages for its members when it begins wage talks next week with Anglo American Platinum, Impala and Lonmin.

(Reporting By Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Joseph Radford)