Gold price creeps higher; euro zone worries weigh

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold edged up 0.1 percent to $1,753.34 an ounce by 0040 GMT, after dipping to a two-week low of $1,737.50 in the previous session.

* U.S. gold inched up 0.1 percent to $1,756.10.

* New U.S. home sales held near two-year highs in August and prices vaulted to their highest level in more than five years, adding to signs of a broadening housing market recovery.

* Violence erupted during the anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain, stoking worries on whether the euro zone will be able to contain the debt crisis.

* Meanwhile, Greece's international lenders clashed over how to solve Athens' debt crisis, threatening more trouble for the euro as the IMF demands European governments write off some of the Greek debt they hold.

* Spain will announce a series of economic reforms and a tight 2013 budget on Thursday, aiming to avoid the political humiliation of having Brussels impose conditions on a request for an international bailout.

* Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dropped over 10 tonnes from a record high of 1,331.331 tonnes to 1,320.777 tonnes by Sept.26.

* An illegal strike spread through AngloGold Ashanti's South African operations on Wednesday, while Anglo American Platinum said it could start firing unlawful strikers on Thursday, as the country's miners grapple to rein in

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