Gold treads water on reports new China tariffs imminent

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Gold prices were little changed early Monday, after falling 0.6 percent in the previous session, as investors remained cautious on reports that the United States is set impose a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was flat at $1,193 an ounce as of 0039 GMT.

* Bullion fell last week for a third straight week.

* U.S. gold futures were down 0.2 percent at $1,198.20.

* U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to announce new tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese imports as early as Monday, a senior administration official told Reuters.

* The tariff level will probably be about 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported, below the 25 percent the administration had said it was considering.

* The WSJ also reported Beijing may decline to participate in proposed trade talks with the United States later this month if the Trump administration moves forward with the tariffs.

* The dollar index was firm at 94.951, having bounced from over six-week lows of 94.359 hit last week.

* Gold prices have declined about 12.6 percent from April amid intensifying global trade tensions and under pressure from rising U.S. interest rates.

* The months-long trade rift between Washington and Beijing has prompted investors to buy the U.S. dollar in the belief that the United States has less to lose from the dispute.

* Hedge funds and money managers cut their net short position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Sept. 11, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.

* Physical gold buying waned in major Asian centres last week as bullion prices rebounded from recent lows, with dealers in India offering the metal at a discount for the first time in over a month as an uptick in local rates moderated demand.

* India's August gold imports rose 92.62 percent to $3.64 billion, according to a trade ministry data.

* The prime minister of Democratic Republic of Congo will sign a decree in the coming days to designate cobalt and other minerals as "strategic" and therefore subject to higher royalties, Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu said on Saturday.

* Rising risk aversion drove the biggest outflows in 11 weeks from world stocks and emerging debt over the past week, alongside a sharp increase in cash allocations, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) said.

* Canadian miner RNC Minerals recovered a 43-kg specimen stone containing an estimated 1,100 ounces of gold and a second 7-kg specimen containing 190 ounces from Beta Hunt Mine in Australia.

DATA AHEAD (GMT)

U.S. New York Fed manufacturing Sep

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)