Gold firm near one-month highs as geopolitical concerns support

REUTERS - Gold held steady early on Tuesday as easing Asian stock markets and geopolitical concerns helped the yellow metal hover close to one-month peaks.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold rose 0.1 percent to $1,268.36 per ounce at 0105 GMT.

* U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,267.80 an ounce

* The euro came under pressure on Tuesday after a media report that Greece may forego its next bailout payment if creditors cannot strike a debt relief deal, while Asian stocks were shackled by holidays in some regional markets.

* Former prime minister Matteo Renzi suggested on Sunday that Italy's next election be held at the same time as Germany's, saying this made sense "from a European perspective".

 

* British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would walk away from divorce talks with the European Union without a deal if she had to, but her rival in next week's election, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, said he would make sure an agreement was reached if he won power.

* May's lead over the opposition Labour Party dropped to 6 percentage points in a poll published on Tuesday, the latest to show a tightening race since the Manchester bombing and a U-turn over social care plans.

* Euro zone growth may be improving but inflation remains subdued and still requires substantial stimulus, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Monday, tempering expectations for the bank's June 8 policy meeting.

* Greece's creditors need to reach a deal on debt relief measures at the next meeting of euro zone finance ministers in June to help the country return to bond markets, its finance minister said on Monday.

* The U.S. economy is at or near the Federal Reserve's goals of full employment and stable prices, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said, adding that the U.S. central bank wants to make sure markets stay calm as it slowly returns interest-rate policy to normal.

* Japanese household spending fell 1.4 percent in April from a year earlier in price-adjusted real terms, government data showed on Tuesday, compared with economists' median estimate of a 0.7 percent decline.

(Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Pullin)