SINGAPORE, July 26 (Reuters) - Gold held steady below its record high on Tuesday as investors watched closely for signs of progress on the U.S. impasse over debt ceiling talks, while euro zone debt woes continued to support sentiment.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,612.49 an ounce by 0022 GMT, off the record at $1,622.49 set on Monday.
* U.S. gold
* U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to address the nation at 0100 GMT, as Democrats and Republicans have so far failed to reach an agreement on raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, stoking fears of a credit rating downgrade and a government default.
* Worries about the U.S. default and credit downgrading have helped push gold up more than 7 percent so far this month.
* Underpinning sentiment in bullion, Moody's cut Greece's credit rating further into junk territory on Monday and said it was almost certain to slap a default tag on its debt as a result of a new EU rescue package.
* South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Monday that wage talks with the country's big gold miners had broken down and it would give them a 48-hour strike notice on Tuesday.
* Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, remained unchanged at 1,241.769 tonnes, while holdings in iShares Silver Trust , the world's biggest silver ETF, rose 42.44 tonnes to 9,891.61 tonnes -- their highest since June 10.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks dipped on Monday as lawmakers remained in a standoff over raising the debt ceiling to avoid default, but investors were convinced a compromise would be reached before next week's critical deadline.
* The U.S. dollar remained on the defensive in early Asia-Pacific having hit record lows on the safe-haven Swiss franc as the market awaited the latest attempt by President Barack Obama to break the deadlock on debt talks.
DATA/EVENTS 1145 U.S. ICSC chain stores yy Weekly 1300 U.S. CaseShiller 20 mm nsa May 1300 U.S. CaseShiller 20 yy May 1400 U.S. New home sales chg mm Jun 1400 U.S. New home sales-units mm Jun 1400 U.S. Consumer confidence Jul 2300 S.Korea GDP growth yy Advance Apr
PRICES
Precious metals prices 0022 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1612.49 -1.56 -0.10 13.60 Spot Silver 40.34 0.03 +0.07 30.72 Spot Platinum 1788.74 3.54 +0.20 1.20 Spot Palladium 805.00 1.52 +0.19 0.69 TOCOM Gold 4068.00 -11.00 -0.27 9.09 19999 TOCOM Platinum 4558.00 7.00 +0.15 -2.94 1744 TOCOM Silver 101.00 -0.60 -0.59 24.69 261 TOCOM Palladium 2040.00 4.00 +0.20 -2.72 44 COMEX GOLD AUG1 1612.70 0.50 +0.03 13.46 1202 COMEX SILVER SEP1 40.34 -0.02 -0.05 30.38 457 Euro/Dollar 1.4358 Dollar/Yen 78.38 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 Clarence Fernandez)