PRECIOUS-Gold extends gains on heightened hopes of ECB action

SINGAPORE, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Gold inched up on Friday,
adding to its biggest daily rise in two weeks in the previous
session, on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's comments
supporting further action from the European Central Bank to
contain the bloc's debt crisis.

FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,616.41 an
ounce by 0021 GMT, on course for a 0.2-percent weekly loss,
despite posting its biggest one-day gain in two weeks, at 0.7
percent, in the previous session.
* U.S. gold futures contract for December delivery
was little changed at $1,618.70.
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support for ECB
President Mario Draghi's crisis-fighting strategy on Thursday
and pressed her European partners to move swiftly towards a
closer integration of fiscal policies, saying time was running
short.
* A trend measure of Americans signing up for new jobless
benefits fell close to a four-year low last week, but weakness
in a regional factory gauge showed the U.S. recovery still faces
an uphill climb.
* Barrick Gold Corp, the world's top gold miner, is
in talks to sell all or a part of its stake in its African arm
to a Chinese buyer, the first big move by new boss Jamie
Sokalsky to clear out its more expensive assets and revive a
flagging share price.
* Holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's biggest
gold-backed exchange-traded fund, gained 0.4 percent to a
one-month high of 1,263.578 tonnes by Aug 16.
* Spot platinum gained 0.4 percent to $1,440 an
ounce, after jumping over 3 percent in the previous session on
the bloodshed at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in South
Africa. The metal, mainly used to make jewellery
and autocatalysts, was headed for a 2.7-percent weekly rise, its
largest in two months.
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MARKET NEWS
* The S&P 500 closed at its highest level since early April
on Thursday after comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel
that appeared to support the European Central Bank's efforts to
fight the region's debt crisis, while Cisco Systems jumped after
it raised its dividend.
* The euro was little changed against the dollar on Friday,
after rising against the greenback in the previous session on
raised expectations of action from the European Central Bank to
contain the region's debt crisis.

DATA/EVENTS
0800 Germany Producer prices July
1930 U.S. CFTC commitment of traders data Weekly

PRICES
Precious metals prices 0021 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume
Spot Gold 1616.41 2.11 +0.13 3.36
Spot Silver 28.22 0.04 +0.14 1.91
Spot Platinum 1440.00 5.50 +0.38 3.37
Spot Palladium 584.40 5.20 +0.90 -10.44
COMEX GOLD DEC2 1618.70 -0.50 -0.03 3.31 1132
COMEX SILVER SEP2 28.18 -0.04 -0.13 0.93 259
Euro/Dollar 1.2355
Dollar/Yen 79.26
COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Ed Davies)