Gold steady ahead of speeches by central bank heads

By Zandi Shabalala

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Gold steadied on Friday before speeches by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that were expected to give more clues on monetary policy.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising interest rates, as these increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the greenback.

Ahead of the speeches, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan called for patience on raising interest rates any further but urged speed in reducing the bank's balance sheet.

Spot gold was barely changed at $1,287 per ounce by 1400 GMT after falling as low as $1,278.54, its lowest since Aug. 16.

"Trading is going to be erratic until the speeches by Yellen and Draghi," said Sucden Financial analyst Kash Kamal. "Very little has happened over the past week in gold and I would expect some volatility before the speech but things should settle down as there is also low volumes."

Monday is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom.

"There could be some speculative buying ahead of the speeches but at this stage it makes sense to have low exposure to gold," said Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity Research.

U.S. gold futures were unchanged at $1,292.30 per ounce.

New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods rose slightly more than expected in July and shipments surged, pointing to an acceleration in business spending early in the third quarter and cementing the economic outlook.

U.S. jobless claims were better than expected, according to data on Thursday, bolstering views that Yellen could signal a monetary policy tightening due to a recovery in the world's largest economy.

Escalating geopolitical concerns were also preventing gold prices from retreating significantly, market participants said.

President Donald Trump on Thursday picked a new fight with his fellow Republicans, saying congressional leaders could have avoided a "mess" over raising the U.S. debt ceiling if they had taken his advice.

Gold is used as an alternative investment during times of political and financial uncertainty.

Silver edged up 0.2 percent to $17 an ounce, while platinum was down 0.3 percent to $976 ounce.

Palladium was up 0.3 percent at $937.30 per ounce, after earlier touching its highest in 16 years at $940.50. The metal has gained 1.2 percent so far in the week.

(Additional reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Edmund Blair)