SINGAPORE, July 13 (Reuters) - Spot gold inched up on Wednesday, extending its winning streak for an eighth straight session, as growing fears of a euro zone debt contagion burnished bullion's safe-haven appeal.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged up 0.2 percent to $1,568.80 an ounce by 0026 GMT, after touching $1,572.96 in the previous session, barely $3 off the record high of $1,575.79 set in May.
* U.S. gold
* Fears of escalating euro zone sovereign debt crisis heightened on Tuesday, after Moody's cut Ireland's credit rating to junk and warned the country might need a second bailout.
* European Union leaders are poised to hold an emergency summit after finance ministers acknowledged for the first time that some form of Greek default may be needed to cut Athens' debts and to stop contagion spreading to Italy and Spain.
* Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, jumped 1.7 percent to 1,225.41 tonnes, their highest in more than two months.
* Some Federal Reserve officials believe further monetary policy easing could be needed if the recovery remains too sluggish to cut the stubbornly high U.S. jobless rate and if inflation eases as expected, minutes of the Fed's last meeting show.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks closed lower for a third straight day on Tuesday as Europe's fiscal woes and a weak start to tech earnings gave investors little reason to buy even after the recent losses.
* The dollar held steady on Wednesday after matching a four-month high reached in the previous session.
DATA/EVENTS 0200 China GDP yy Apr 0430 Japan Industrial output rev May 0900 EZ Industrial production yy May 1230 U.S. Import prices mm Jun 1800 U.S. Federal budget Jun 2330 Japan Reuters Tankan DI Jul
PRICES Precious metals prices 0026 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1568.80 3.55 +0.23 10.52 Spot Silver 36.26 0.21 +0.58 17.50 Spot Platinum 1741.00 11.85 +0.69 -1.50 Spot Palladium 766.75 4.70 +0.62 -4.10 TOCOM Gold 4010.00 20.00 +0.50 7.54 45543 TOCOM Platinum 4494.00 32.00 +0.72 -4.30 6455 TOCOM Silver 92.80 1.40 +1.53 14.57 329 TOCOM Palladium 1971.00 0.00 +0.00 -6.01 147 COMEX GOLD AUG1 1569.60 7.30 +0.47 10.43 2201 COMEX SILVER SEP1 36.31 0.68 +1.90 17.36 849 Euro/Dollar 1.4017 Dollar/Yen 79.35 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Himani Sarkar)