Gold steadies away from two-week low as U.S. retail sales miss

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold steadied away from a two-week low early on Wednesday after U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in March, but a recovering dollar could cap any rise in bullion prices.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was flat at $1,192.93 an ounce by 0026 GMT, after touching its lowest in two weeks at $1,183.68 on Tuesday.

* U.S. gold for June delivery was also little changed at $1,192.90 an ounce.

* Markets are focussing on China's gross domestic product data on Wednesday morning that could show the extent of slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. China is also the world's No. 2 gold consumer.

* China's annual economic growth likely slowed to a six-year low of 7 percent in the first quarter as demand at home and abroad faltered, a Reuters poll showed, fanning expectations that authorities will have to roll out more policy stimulus to avert a sharper slowdown.

* U.S. retail sales rose 0.9 percent in March, just below market expectations for a 1-percent increase. But it marked the first monthly rise since November, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter was temporary.

* Raising U.S. interest rates this year, as most Federal Reserve officials expect, would be "inappropriate" because it would delay the return of too-low inflation to the U.S. central bank's 2 percent goal, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said.

* Recent shifts in exchange rates should help the global economy, boosting Japan and Europe in particular, amid increasing divergence in the growth paths of the world's major economies, the International Monetary Fund said.

* For the top stories on metals and other news, click [TOP/MTL] or [GOL/]

MARKET NEWS

* Investors in Asian equities took a cautious stance ahead of an anxiously-awaited reading on China's growth pulse. [MKTS/GLOB][USD/]

DATA/EVENTS AHEAD (GMT)

0200 China GDP Q1

0200 China Industrial output Mar

0200 China Retail sales Mar

0200 China Urban investment Mar

0900 Euro zone Eurostat trade Feb

1145 European Central Bank announces policy meeting outcome

1230 U.S. New York Fed manufacturing Apr

1315 U.S. Industrial output Mar

1400 U.S. NAHB housing market index Apr

Precious metals prices at 0026 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg

Spot Gold 1192.93 -0.15 -0.01 0.79

Spot Silver 16.17 0.06 +0.37 3.26

Spot Platinum 1151.50 0.65 +0.06 -4.03

Spot Palladium 762.72 2.74 +0.36 -3.78

COMEX GOLD JUN5 1192.90 0.30 +0.03 0.74

COMEX SILVER MAY5 16.15 -0.01 -0.07 3.53

Euro/Dollar 1.0632

Dollar/Yen 119.54

COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Joseph Radford)