Gold steadies as dollar firms, but Brexit concerns support

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Thursday after rallying to its highest since March 2014 a day earlier on the back of concerns about Britain's vote to leave the European Union, as strength in stocks and the dollar limited gains.

Financial markets have been extremely volatile since Britain voted on June 23 to leave the EU bloc, knocking equities and pushing some bond yields to record lows. The moves have boosted the appeal of so-called safe-havens such as gold and silver.

Spot gold was at $1,363.01 an ounce at 1130 GMT, little changed from $1,363.51 late on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures for August delivery were down $2.60 an ounce at $1,364.70.

Spot prices reached their highest since March 2014 on Wednesday at $1,374.91 an ounce but have struggled to maintain those levels as stocks and the U.S. dollar rose.

"In the last few weeks we've seen a two-step move. First, we had the Brexit vote, which led to a rise in safe-haven demand, and then we saw markets starting to reprice monetary policy among central banks," Danske Bank analyst Jens Pedersen said. "We had these two factors working in the same direction for gold."

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates as they lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while also typically boosting the dollar in which the precious metal is priced.

"We have found a level where gold has stabilised," Pedersen said. "In the short term, I do see a risk that the dollar will rise further, so that will again cap the upside for gold."

Traders are awaiting further clues on the outlook for Federal Reserve policy from Friday's U.S. non-farm payrolls (NFP) data, seen as a barometer of the economy's health.

Gold jumped last month after data showed a slowdown in hiring in May. Another weak reading could indicate that the Fed will hold off on further rate increases, particularly given the economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote.

"The yellow metal continues to feed off global uncertainty, however, the focus now shifts to Friday's NFP print for an indication as to whether May's 38,000 result was just an aberration or a sign of cracks starting to appear in the U.S. recovery," MKS said in a note.

Elsewhere, data showed China's gold reserves rose to 58.62 million ounces at the end of June from 58.14 million a month before.

Silver was down 0.6 percent at $19.94 an ounce, while platinum was down 0.6 percent at $1,074.74 an ounce and palladium was down 0.3 percent at $603 an ounce.

(Additional reporting By Nallur Sethuraman and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke and David Evans)