SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters) - Gold held steady below its record high on Tuesday, as sentiment continued to be supported by worries about a spreading debt crisis in the euro zone and uncertainties in U.S. debt ceiling talks.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold edged lower 0.1 percent to $1,601.86 an ounce by 0021 GMT, off the record high of $1,607.01 reached on Monday.
* U.S. gold
* Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust , the world's biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, gained 1.1 percent to 1,249.352 tonnes by July 17, highest in six months.
* The White House was pursuing a fallback plan with Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avert a default that could plunge global financial markets into chaos.
* While the U.S. Congress approaches the deadline on Aug. 2 on deficit talks, European governments and banks struggled to reconcile competing proposals for a second bailout of Greece, before leaders meet later this week to prevent the crisis from spreading in the region.
* Spot silver was nearly flat at $40.48 an ounce, off
Monday's high of $40.70 -- its loftiest level since May 4. U.S.
silver
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks dropped on Monday as bank shares bore the brunt of investor frustration over governments' inability to solve debt crises in the United States and Europe.
* The euro steadied and the dollar edged lower against a basket of currencies on Tuesday.
DATA/EVENTS 0900 Germany ZEW economic sentiment Jul 1100 U.S. Bank of America earnings Q2 1145 U.S. ICSC chain stores yy Weekly 1230 U.S. Build permits: change mm Jun 1230 U.S. House starts mm: change Jun 1230 U.S. Housing starts number mm Jun 1300 Canada BoC rate decision Jul :: U.S. CSX corp earnings Q2
PRICES
Precious metals prices 0021 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1601.86 -1.54 -0.10 12.85 Spot Silver 40.48 -0.03 -0.07 31.17 Spot Platinum 1764.49 -5.49 -0.31 -0.17 Spot Palladium 790.90 -1.67 -0.21 -1.08 TOCOM Gold 4073.00 42.00 +1.04 9.22 28168 TOCOM Platinum 4531.00 34.00 +0.76 -3.51 2614 TOCOM Silver 102.20 5.10 +5.25 26.17 894 TOCOM Palladium 2024.00 44.00 +2.22 -3.48 123 COMEX GOLD AUG1 1602.50 0.10 +0.01 12.74 2401 COMEX SILVER SEP1 40.50 0.16 +0.39 30.90 500 Euro/Dollar 1.4113 Dollar/Yen 79.01 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)