Gold eased for a second straight session on Monday as the dollar edged higher, but the metal remained underpinned above $1,200 an ounce as caution in financial markets prompted investors to channel money into bullion.
* Spot gold had fallen 0.3 percent to $1,223.70 an ounce by 0035 GMT, after declining 0.3 percent on Friday.
* The metal jumped to its highest in a year earlier this month on turmoil in the stock markets and concerns over the global economy, but posted small losses last week on profit taking and as equities consolidated.
* Bullion was hurt early on Monday by the strength in the dollar, which rose against a basket of major currencies as sterling slid on growing concerns that Britain would quit the European Union.
* Gold, however, remains one of the best performing asset of the year with gains of 15 percent as global uncertainties linger.
* Asian share markets got off to a cautious start on Monday as investors await a rush of February industry surveys to take the pulse of the global economy.
* A busy week for data culminates with a Group of 20 meeting that offer leaders a chance to soothe market concerns with talk of coordination, even if it produces nothing concrete.
* Data on Friday showed that rising rents and healthcare costs lifted underlying US consumer price inflation in January by the most in nearly 4-1/2 years, providing support for the view that the Federal Reserve could gradually raise interest rates this year as forecast.
* Investor optimism in gold was evident in flows.
* SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 2.71 percent to 732.96 tonnes on Friday, the biggest single day inflow since August 2011.
* Hedge funds and money managers hiked their bullish bet in COMEX gold futures and options to a near four-month high in the week to Feb. 16, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.
* Equity funds posted their longest run of outflows since 2008 in the last week, edging closer to “capitulation” levels as risk-off redemptions accelerated, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday, adding that investors shovelled $3.2 billion into gold, the biggest two-week gold inflow since May 2010.
