Gold nudges up as Asian shares edge lower

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices inched up early Tuesday as Asian stocks faltered, weighed down by political tensions between Saudi Arabia and Western powers, uncertainties around Brexit and Italy's budgetary woes.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,222.53 an ounce at 0056 GMT.

* U.S. gold futures edged up 0.1 percent to $1,225.30 an ounce.

* Palladium eased 0.2 percent to $1,119.50 an ounce, having hit a nine-month high of $1,124.40 in the previous session.

* Asian shares were listless on Tuesday, a day after a strong rally led by stimulus hope in China, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropping 0.5 percent.

* U.S. President Donald Trump said he was still not satisfied with what he has heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, but did not want to lose investment from Riyadh.

* Russia said it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if Trump carried through on a threat to quit a nuclear arms treaty and began developing new missiles.

* The United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Monday in the second such operation this year, as the U.S. military increases the frequency of transits through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.

* Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House as he left on a campaign trip to Texas, said on Monday his administration planned to produce a resolution within two weeks calling for a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income people.

* Prime Minister Theresa May urged restive lawmakers to back her in the final stages of Britain's exit from the European Union, saying talks were in their most difficult phase even if a deal was close.

* Italy told the European Commission on Monday it would stick to its contested 2019 budget plans in defiance of EU fiscal rules, but promised not to inflate its deficit any further in the years ahead.

* Lonmin Plc on Monday signed a $200 million metal purchase agreement, which will provide the platinum miner better liquidity as it awaits the closure of Sibanye-Stillwater's takeover of the company.

* Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.28 percent to 747.88 tonnes on Monday. [GOL/ETF]

DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT)

0600 Germany Producer prices Sep

1400 Euro zone Consumer confidence Oct

1400 U.S. Richmond Fed composite index Oct

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