Gold steadies above $1,240; economic data eyed for cues

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold steadied above $1,240 an ounce on Thursday after dipping overnight on a stronger dollar, but caution prevailed ahead of a host of global economic data and on further outflows from bullion funds.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $1,241.60 an ounce by 0045 GMT, after losing 0.7 percent in the previous session. Wednesday's loss took gold away from a six-week high of $1,255.20 hit earlier in the week.

* The dollar is holding near a one-week high against a basket of major currencies reached on Wednesday.

* U.S. consumer prices rose marginally in September, painting a weak inflation picture that should give the Federal Reserve ample room to keep interest rates low for a while.

* A slight uptick in September U.S. CPI data, a 0.1 percent rise versus a mean forecast of no change, helped push U.S. Treasury yields up, supporting the greenback.

* Investors will be eyeing data from China, Europe and the United States on Thursday to gauge the health of the global economy.

* Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.3 percent to 749.87 tonnes on Wednesday - their lowest since late 2008.

* Flows in and out of the fund tend to influence prices due to the size of its holdings.

* The volume of gold sold forward by mining companies jumped 61 percent in the second quarter after Russia's Polyus Gold added a major new hedge position, an industry report showed on Wednesday.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Pullin)