Gold slips as stocks surge, heads for first weekly decline since May

By Vijaykumar Vedala

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices dipped on Friday on a firmer dollar and surging Asian shares and were set for the first weekly decline since May, after falling to a two-week low in the previous session.

Asian shares extended gains to eight-month highs, on track for a solid weekly rise, as better-than-expected economic data from China lifted risk sentiment that was already buoyant after record highs on Wall Street.

The U.S. dollar extended its gains and scaled a three-week high against the yen.

Spot gold eased 0.4 percent to $1,328.78 per ounce by 0405 GMT. Bullion fell about 0.6 percent on Thursday and hit $1,319.82, its lowest since June 30.

The metal has fallen about 2.7 percent so far this week and is on track for its first weekly decline since the week ending May 27.

U.S. gold slipped 0.2 percent to $1,329.30 an ounce.

"The precious metals are taking a breather. They have done really well this year and went up too quickly. So retrenchment is only right to happen. Also, stock markets are doing well at this point of time," said Brian Lan, managing director at Singapore-based gold dealer GoldSilver Central.

"Gold will be under pressure for now and might possibly restest the lows from end-June if the U.S. retail data (for June) due later today is better than expected."

Three Federal Reserve policymakers on Thursday expressed the view that there was no hurry to raise U.S. interest rates in the wake of the UK decision to leave the European Union, despite signs that the U.S. economy is near full employment.

Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.25 percent to 962.85 tonnes on Thursday.

"Gold prices seem vulnerable to the downside as the financial markets look more confident. The path of least resistance appears lower, for now. The net long spec positions are historically high and may need to be pared back before gold can advance," HSBC analyst James Steel said in a note.

Spot gold is expected to fall to $1,313 per ounce, as suggested by two sets of Fibonacci retracement analysis, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said on Friday.

Among other precious metals, spot palladium marked its highest since early November, touching a session high of $652.

Spot silver was close to registering its first weekly decline in seven and was down 0.5 percent to $20.19 an ounce.

Spot platinum was seen flat for the week and slipped 0.3 percent to $1,095.50.

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