SINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) - Spot gold held steady below $1,600 on Thursday, with investors waiting for the euro zone summit on Greece's debt crisis later in the day, while concerns about the U.S. debt ceiling continued to support sentiment.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged down 0.1 percent to $1,598.10 an ounce by 0034 GMT, after rising nearly 0.8 percent in the previous session. Gold hit a record of $1,609.51 on July 19.
* U.S. gold
* Investors are watching the euro zone summit later today, where European Union leaders will try to find a convincing solution to Greece's debt crisis. Failure to reach a solution could cost economic damage to the global economy, head of the European Commission warned.
* Safe-haven appetite in bullion was also buoyed by uncertainties in the U.S. debt ceiling talks, even after the White House signaled it could support a short-term increase in the borrowing limit for "a few days" if lawmakers agreed to a broad deficit reduction deal but needed more time to pass it.
* Investors have started reallocating money into commodities this month, reversing outflows in the second quarter, in a trend that is likely to continue as long as worries over inflation and debt crises dominate financial markets.
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks closed near unchanged on Wednesday after Wall Street's best rally since March, as the ongoing debt ceiling talks overshadowed strong earnings from Apple Inc .
* The euro rose against the U.S. dollar in Asia on Thursday on news Germany and France had agreed a joint position on a debt bailout for Greece, fuelling hopes for real progress after so many false starts.
DATA/EVENTS 0658 France Markit/CDAF Mfg Flash P Jul 0728 Germany Markit/BME MFG Flash PMI Jul 0758 EZ Markit Mfg flash PMI Jul 1000 Euro zone leaders meet to discuss 2nd Greece bailout 1230 U.S. Unemployment claims Weekly 1400 U.S. Fed's Bernanke testifies to Senate banking committee
PRICES Precious metals prices 0034 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1598.10 -2.00 -0.12 12.59 Spot Silver 39.89 -0.19 -0.47 29.26 Spot Platinum 1772.24 -0.02 -0.00 0.27 Spot Palladium 792.00 -0.22 -0.03 -0.94 TOCOM Gold 4052.00 9.00 +0.22 8.66 30330 TOCOM Platinum 4540.00 -14.00 -0.31 -3.32 2767 TOCOM Silver 100.50 1.50 +1.52 24.07 568 TOCOM Palladium 2017.00 5.00 +0.25 -3.81 32 COMEX GOLD AUG1 1599.00 2.10 +0.13 12.49 3813 COMEX SILVER SEP1 39.95 0.39 +0.99 29.12 899 Euro/Dollar 1.4257 Dollar/Yen 78.74 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)