Gold rises to near 13-month high on equities, Fed rate views

By Clara Denina

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold rose on Monday, hovering just below last week's 13-month high as European shares dipped, while a fall in average U.S. earnings lessened expectations the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates at its next policy meeting.

Although Friday's U.S. data showed 242,000 jobs were created last month, assuaging fears the U.S. economy could be headed into recession, a fall in average earnings could mean the Fed will be in no hurry to raise rates.

A low interest rate environment encourages investors to put money into non-interest bearing assets such as gold.

"So far the rally in gold has been based on the re-pricing of a Fed rate hike (which) the market expects to be delayed for some time, in contrast to the view at the beginning of the year that the Fed could hike again as soon as March," Danske Bank senior analyst Jens Pedersen said.

Spot gold was up 0.8 percent at $1,269.03 an ounce by 1125 GMT. The metal peaked at $1,279.60 on Friday, its strongest since Feb. 3, 2015, before slipping on U.S. data.

U.S. gold for April delivery was unchanged at$1,270.40.

The Fed, which is scheduled to meet on March 15-16, raised U.S. interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December amid signs of strength in the world's top economy.

HSBC said in a note the rally in gold remains largely intact with the metal not falling sharply despite the strong U.S. jobs data.

"But at these high prices restrained physical demand may begin to temper the rally and we could be in for some profit taking or liquidation," it said.

Gold shrugged off a stronger dollar, up 0.3 percent against a basket of leading currencies, mostly due to euro weakness ahead of a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, widely expected to ease monetary policy further to help shore up still shaky euro zone growth.

Hedge funds and money managers reduced their bullish bets in COMEX gold in the week to March 1 for the first time since switching to a net long stance in mid-January, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.

Platinum surpassed the $1,000 an ounce mark for the first time in more than four months, up 2.4 percent at $1,003.35 an ounce.

The metal's discount to gold has dropped back to $266, compared with Friday's record high above $320.

Spot silver rose 1.2 percent to 15.66 an ounce and palladium gained 0.4 percent to $557.75.

(Additional reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr in Manila; Editing by Susan Thomas)