Gold edges down in slow trading, muted dollar supports

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BENGALURU - Gold inched lower on Tuesday, trading in a tight range ahead of a U.S. holiday, but the metal held above the 1,220 level as the dollar was pressured by weak U.S. economic data and a clouded interest rate outlook.

Spot gold inched 0.2 percent lower to $1,221.26 per ounce at 0422 GMT.

U.S. gold futures were down 0.3 percent at $1,222.1 per ounce.

"The market is very quiet today and appears to be in a holiday mood ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving," said Peter Fung, head of dealing at Wing Fung Precious Metals in Hong Kong.

"The dollar has come under some pressure giving some support to gold."

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was trading near an over one-week low that it hit in the previous session.

The currency came under pressure as U.S. Federal Reserve officials cautioned on the global growth outlook and weak data at home, pointing to a potentially slower pace of rate hikes.

The Fed is still expected to raise interest rates again next month and three times next year, but a strong majority of economists polled by Reuters over the past week say the risk is it will slow that pace down.

"The Feds have changed the landscape to a more dovish terrain suggesting that they too are turning a little bit risk-averse," Stephen Innes, APAC trading head at OANDA in Singapore, said in a note.

"Great signal for gold prices which should see the dollar struggle into year-end while gold will continue to feed off Brexit and trade war risk."

A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated gold cheaper for holders of other currencies.

Spot gold may test a support at $1,211 per ounce, a break below which could cause a loss to $1,202, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

Meanwhile, holdings SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.16 percent to 760.86 tonnes on Monday.

Among other precious metals, silver slipped 0.7 percent to $14.33 an ounce.

Palladium was up 0.2 percent to $1,164.49 per ounce, platinum slipped 0.7 percent to $847.30 per ounce. (Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)