Gold slips as dollar steadies on positive U.S. data

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices slipped early Wednesday while the dollar held its gains on the back of upbeat March U.S. housing starts and industrial production figures.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold fell 0.2 percent to $1,344.20 per ounce at 0107 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for June delivery dipped 0.2 percent to $1,347.50 per ounce.

* The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was little changed at 89.556, after gaining 0.1 percent overnight.

* The index touched a three-week low of 89.229 on Tuesday before pulling back on stronger-than-expected March U.S. housing starts and steady industrial production figures.

* Housing starts rose 1.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.319 million units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts rising to a pace of 1.262 million units last month.

* In a separate report on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said industrial production rose 0.5 percent in March after jumping 1.0 percent in February.

* San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Tuesday said he expects U.S. inflation to rise to the U.S. central bank's 2-percent goal this year and stay at or above that goal for "another couple of years," even as the Fed continues to raise interest rates.

* President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States was engaged in direct talks at "extremely high levels" with North Korea to try to set up a summit between him and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

* Syria's U.N. ambassador said a United Nations security team travelled to the Syrian town of Douma ahead of a planned visit by global chemical weapons experts on Wednesday to look into a suspected poison gas attack that sparked a U.S.-led retaliatory strike.

* The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that rising U.S.-China trade restrictions threaten to damage a steady global growth picture, but there was still time for the world's two largest economies to step back from the brink.

* Polyus said on Tuesday that the inclusion on a U.S. sanctions list of a member of the family that controls Russia's biggest gold producer would not lead to changes in the way the company conducted its business.

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru)