* Hurricane Sandy hits U.S. East Coast
* U.S. stock markets shut through Tuesday
* CME Globex electronic trading remains open
* Coming up: Bank of Japan monetary policy meeting Tuesday
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Gold edged lower on Monday on
worries about the global economy, and trading was far below
normal as a monster hurricane began battering the U.S. East
Coast and exchanges were shut in New York.
CME Group Inc. closed the COMEX/NYMEX trading floor
while keeping its Globex electronic platform running.
Last week, gold declined for the third straight week due to
a string of lackluster U.S. economic data and uncertainty over
the future of U.S. Federal Reserve stimulus. It was gold's first
three-week decline in more than a year.
Hurricane Sandy, which forecasters said could be the largest
to hit the mainland in U.S. history, led to the first
weather-related shutdown of U.S. stock markets in 27 years. Wall
Street will remain shut through Tuesday.
Bullion could stay rangebound in the near term due
uncertainty about the outcome of the Nov. 6 U.S. elections, with
most polls showing a deadlock between President Barack Obama and
Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
"Trading desks will be lightly staffed due to the massive
storm...and the fact that the polls remain tight will likely
discourage investors from taking a definitive view on the
precious metals group for the next few days," Edward Meir,
metals analyst at brokerage INTL FCStone.
Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,708.06 an ounce
by 1:49 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT).
U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled down
$3.20 an ounce at $1,708.70, with trading volume at only
one-third of its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data
showed.
Other than light trading volume, the gold market largely
ignored Hurricane Sandy, which was expected to wreak havoc for
50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada in her path.
"Gold is a 'safe-haven' for economic and political
events. Weather has virtually nothing to do with gold," said
Bill O'Neill, partner at commodities investment firm LOGIC
Advisors.
Analysts and traders said they expected gold to trade in a
narrow range due to uncertainty ahead of Friday U.S. non-farm
payrolls. The Fed has explicitly tied the extent of its latest
buyback of mortgage bond-buybacks to the jobs market recovery.
The U.S. Department of Labor said on Monday it intended to
release its jobs data on Friday which might now be delayed
because of the massive storm.
Spot gold is heading for its biggest monthly loss since May
this month, having hit an 11-month peak above $1,795 an ounce on
Oct. 5 based on optimism after the Fed's latest easing program.
US FISCAL CLIFF IN FOCUS
Investors are also awaiting the U.S. elections and the
so-called "fiscal cliff", a series of automatic spending cuts
and tax increases that will kick in if Congress fails to reach a
deficit-reduction deal by the end of the year.
In physical markets, gold importers in India, the world's
biggest buyer, are retreating after picking up bargains last
week as prices recovered from a more than two-month low due to
the falling rupee.
Among other precious metals, silver fell 1 percent to
$31.73 an ounce, platinum was down 0.5 percent at
$1,530.74 an ounce, and palladium edged down 0.8 percent
at $587.72 an ounce.
1:49 PM EDT LAST/ NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL
US Gold DEC 1708.70 -3.20 -0.2 1706.20 1717.80 52,984
US Silver DEC 31.745 -0.291 -0.9 31.680 32.230 15,386
US Plat JAN 1533.90 -12.10 -0.8 1531.10 1560.00 5,243
US Pall DEC 589.75 -5.65 -0.9 586.95 601.80 2,201
Gold 1708.06 -2.68 -0.2 1706.45 1716.96
Silver 31.730 -0.320 -1.0 31.690 32.190
Platinum 1530.74 -8.36 -0.5 1532.60 1555.00
Palladium 587.72 -4.98 -0.8 590.00 600.00
TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG
US Gold 55,501 158,567 173,827 15.28 -0.31
US Silver 16,684 45,340 56,232 23.45 -0.44
US Platinum 5,377 13,879 9,735 21.81 -0.19
US Palladium 2,304 3,883 4,782
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