PRECIOUS-Gold drifts from 1-mth high, recovery hopes dull appetite
SINGAPORE, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Gold inched down on Thursday, pulling further away from a one-month high hit earlier in the week, as increasing confidence in the global economic recovery dulled bullion's appeal as a safe haven investment.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold had edged down 0.2 percent to $1,682.51 an ounce by 0032 GMT, off a one-month peak of $1,695.76 hit on Tuesday.
* U.S. gold fell 0.2 percent to $1,682.70.
* The world economy should perform slightly better this year because recovering growth in Asia will gradually overpower the political and economic malaise in the West, according to Reuters polls.
* Top U.S. manufacturers sounded a confident note about their expectations for 2013 on Wednesday as fears of the year-end "fiscal cliff" faded into memory.
* Consumer morale in the euro zone improved sharply in January, the European Commission said on Wednesday, suggesting households can help boost the bloc's economic recovery.
* The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it.
* Spot silver lost 0.3 percent to $32.15 an ounce, taking a breather after an eight-day rally, the longest winning streak since April 2011 when prices marched to a record high near $50.
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MARKET NEWS
* The S&P 500 rose for a sixth day on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected profits from IBM and Google, but the rally could be halted as Apple's after-hours miss sent its shares lower.
* The yen's rebound came to an abrupt halt on Thursday with investors wary about cutting bearish bets further amid expectations the Bank of Japan will come under renewed pressure to ease policy.
DATA/EVENTS
0145 China HSBC Manufacturing Flash PMI 0758 France Markit Manufacturing Flash PMI 0828 Germany Markit Manufacturing Flash PMI 0858 Euro zone Markit Manufacturing Flash PMI 0900 Euro Zone Current account 1330 U.S. Weekly jobless claims 1358 U.S. Markit Manufacturing Flash PMI 1500 U.S. Leading indicators
PRICES
Precious metals prices 0032 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1682.51 -2.63 -0.16 0.48 Spot Silver 32.15 -0.09 -0.28 6.18 Spot Platinum 1681.00 -3.25 -0.19 9.51 Spot Palladium 716.50 -6.97 -0.96 3.54 COMEX GOLD FEB3 1682.70 -4.00 -0.24 0.41 2856 COMEX SILVER MAR3 32.16 -0.28 -0.88 6.37 634 Euro/Dollar 1.3301 Dollar/Yen 88.51
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months
(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Joseph Radford)