Gold edges lower for sixth session on Fed stimulus worries

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold eased for a sixth straight session on Monday to trade near two-week lows as renewed uncertainty over when the U.S. Federal Reserve will scale back its stimulus measures weighed on sentiment.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold fell 0.1 percent to $1,313.54 an ounce by 0014 GMT, after posting a near 3 percent weekly drop. It fell to a low of $1,305.69 on Friday - its lowest since October 17.

* A top Federal Reserve official said on Friday the U.S. labour market has recovered enough in the last 14 months to allow the central bank to reduce its bond-buying stimulus.

* Another official said inflation has to be higher before the Fed decides to scale back.

* The Fed's $85 billion monthly bond purchases have burnished gold's appeal as a hedge against inflation, boosting prices, but signs that the bank is nearing a tapering of the purchases have hurt prices this year.

* The U.S. Mint's American Eagle gold coin sales rose to a two-year high on Friday, lifting 2013 sales above the previous year's total and reflecting the consistently strong demand for physical bullion coins among retail investors.

* Hedge funds and money managers broadly raised bullish bets in futures and options of U.S. gold, silver and copper for the week ended October 22, a report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.

* For the top stories on metals and other news, click, or

MARKET NEWS

* Asian markets started the week on a sluggish note on Monday, while the euro languished at two-week lows.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Richard Pullin)

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Wall Street ends session lower but posts gains for October

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks finished lower on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's statement the day before added to investors' anxiety about the timing of a pullback in its stimulus program.

While it was a second consecutive day of losses for the market, all three major indexes ended October with solid gains.

Dragging on the Dow and the S&P 500, Visa Inc lost 3.5 percent to $196.67 after the world's largest credit and debit card company reported a 28 percent drop in quarterly profit.

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday said it will keep buying $85 billion of bonds per month, citing weaker economic signals, but it removed a phrase from a previous statement expressing worries about credit conditions, which some investors interpreted as a sign that the Fed could begin tapering earlier than expected.

"That leaves tapering on the table for December," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Before the Fed's meeting, many market participants were anticipating that the stimulus plan would not change until at least early next year.

The Fed's accommodative monetary policy in recent years has contributed to the stock market's rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 73.01 points, or 0.47 percent, to close at 15,545.75. The S&P 500 <.spx> lost 6.77 points, or 0.38 percent, to finish at 1,756.54. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 10.91 points or 0.28 percent, to end at 3,919.71.

The S&P 500 closed near its intraday low, with a wave of end-of-session selling marked by sell-order imbalances near the close.

"This was more of an order flow thing," said Dennis Dick, proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. "Some participants, some institutions wanted out big time, and they got out."

For the month, the Dow gained 2.8 percent, the S&P 500 added 4.5 percent and the Nasdaq rose 3.9 percent.

The S&P 500 is up 23.2 percent for the year so far.

"It's already at nosebleed heights and it could go higher, but people are focusing on the rewards and not the risks," including ongoing weakness in the economy," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners in New York.

Among the day's gainers, shares of Exxon Mobil Corp , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, helped support the Dow and the S&P 500, rising 0.9 percent to $89.62 after the company reported adjusted third-quarter earnings that beat expectations.

Expedia jumped 18 percent to $58.97 and ranked as the S&P 500's best percentage gainer, a day after reporting third-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations.

Facebook reported strong growth in its mobile advertising business late on Wednesday, though it said it didn't plan to boost the frequency of ads shown to users. Facebook's stock rose 2.4 percent to close at $50.21.

With results in from 355 companies in the S&P 500, 68.2 percent have topped Wall Street's expectations, above both the 63 percent beat rate since 1994 and the 66 percent beat rate for the past four quarters, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Revenue performance has been weaker, however, with 53.6 percent of companies exceeding expectations, shy of the 61 percent beat rate since 2002, but above the 49 percent rate for the past four quarters.

Thursday's economic data was mixed. A gauge of business activity in the Midwest surged past expectations in October, while weekly initial jobless claims dipped in the latest week.

(Additional reporting by Luke Swiderski; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Jan Paschal)

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BSE Sensex falls for second session; tech shares slump

By Abhishek Vishnoi

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex fell on Thursday for a second consecutive session, as software services exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services slumped despite its quarterly results beating estimates as investors took profits after strong recent gains.

Traders said the July-September results had already been factored into share prices, with TCS hitting a record high on Tuesday and investors already looking ahead at earnings from other sectors that are expected to be weaker.

Meanwhile, market relief at an 11th-hour U.S. budget deal gave way to worries over the economic impact of the 16-day government shutdown and prospects of a re-run early next year.

"The better results of Nifty have come. So don't generalise Nifty results on the basis of the likes of Infosys, TCS, IndusInd Bank etc. The ones that will come in later are going to surprise negatively," said Jyotheesh Kumar, executive vice president of HDFC Securities.

The Sensex fell 0.64 percent, or 132.11 points, to end at 20,415.51, for a second day of falls after climbing to its highest intraday level since November 2010 on Tuesday.

The broader Nifty fell 0.71 percent, or 43.20 points, to end at 6,045.85.

TCS fell 4.8 percent after hitting an all-time high of 2,258.85 rupees on Tuesday, and Infosys Ltd ended 2.6 percent lower as investors took profits.

TCS said late on Tuesday its consolidated net profit for the quarter rose 34 percent to 47 billion rupees compared with an average of 44.

HCL Technologies Ltd slumped 6.

Among other IT stocks, Wipro Ltd fell 3.1 percent, while Tech Mahindra Ltd ended 3.4 percent lower.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd fell 4 percent on caution ahead of its September quarter results on Friday.

Credit Suisse downgraded Larsen and Toubro to "underperform" from "neutral" and cut the price target to 713 rupees from 955 rupees, saying it expects the company's domestic order flow to have slowed down.

Tata Motors Ltd fell 4 percent, heading for its second day of decline after hitting a record high of 393.30 rupees on Monday.

South Indian Bank Ltd shares fell 1.2 percent after the lender said non-performing loans rose to 1.39 percent in July-September versus 0.86 percent a year earlier.

Among the gainers, Bajaj Auto Ltd , India's second-largest motorcycle maker by sales, rose 1.3 percent after the company reported July-September profit that beat analyst estimates.

Apollo Tyres Ltd shares rose 2.6 percent after the company said on Monday its lenders were unlikely to approve its bid for U.S.-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co unless the $2.5 billion price tag was cut to take account of unresolved labour disputes.

(Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)

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