* Gold hits second straight record high on safety play
* Bullion off highs as Wall St steadies, commods rise
* Sharp rally strains gold vault storage, margin hike eyed
* Coming up: U.S. Chicago Fed index on Friday (Updates comment, prices)
By Frank Tang
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Gold rose more than 1 percent on Friday, setting a record high for a second straight day and posting its biggest one-week gain in 2-1/2 years on worries about stalled U.S. growth and Europe's debt crisis.
After rallying around 3 percent to a record $1,877 an ounce earlier in the session, bullion sharply pared initial gains as Wall Street briefly found its footing. Rising oil and commodity prices also sapped some safety bids for gold after it had gained 6 percent over the past five days.
The bullion market is awaiting next week's conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Some analysts said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke could unveil a third round of quantitative easing to revive economic growth.
"Gold is driven by the uncertainty about a new global recession ... and the possibility that Europe will engage in additional quantitative easing," said James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Financial Asset Management, which oversees $200 million in assets.
"While an expected correction could be violent, I don't think it may last too long."
Spot gold
U.S. gold futures for December delivery
Silver
A raft of global economic data this week including sluggish German growth numbers and a weak U.S. manufacturing report sparked heavy selling of equities and riskier assets such as industrial commodities.
Mounting economic fears prompted investors to dump stocks and other risk assets for the perceived security of gold. The inverse correlation between bullion and equities has tightened to negative 0.5, and a ratio of the S&P 500 divided by gold fell to its lowest in 23 years.
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S&P500 priced in gold: http://r.reuters.com/meq33s
Gold correlation with dollar: http://r.reuters.com/ryx52s
Inflation-adjusted gold price: http://r.reuters.com/pun62s
Gold in different currencies: http://r.reuters.com/wun62s
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GOLD VAULT STRAINS, MARGINS HIKE
A near $400 rally in the price of the yellow metal has caused some strains in gold vault storage space particularly in the western United States, and some retail clients have had to pay higher service fees, Savneet Singh, chief executive of Gold Bullion International (GBI), told Reuters.
Singh said the premium of small physical bullion bars is now significantly above spot gold prices due to huge demand. GBI sells physical precious metals and offers delivery and storage services to institutional and retail investors.
Gold's rally prompted the CEO of Canadian gold producer
Goldcorp
Speculation was also rife on Friday that the CME Group, the world's largest commodity exchange, could raise margins on gold futures once more, after a similar move this month dampened the precious metal's sharp run higher.
Gold once again traded briefly at a premium to platinum, after doing so last week for the first time since 2008. Concerns over economic growth, while lifting gold, are weighing on industrial metals such as platinum. [ID:nL6E7J90UG]
Platinum
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL US Gold DEC 1852.20 30.20 1.7 1824.50 1881.40 249,567 US Silver SEP 42.432 1.744 4.3 40.560 42.640 66,696 US Plat OCT 1874.90 27.20 1.5 1842.50 1882.10 8,256 US Pall SEP 748.80 -8.20 -1.1 741.10 761.95 2,505 Gold 1847.90 24.05 1.3 1822.15 1877.00 Silver 42.400 1.810 4.5 40.560 42.560 Platinum 1868.50 31.75 1.7 1843.00 1876.50 Palladium 743.49 -8.21 -1.1 745.00 759.25 TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG US Gold 270,257 243,827 186,266 27.87 0.82 US Silver 91,477 70,998 60,266 41.56 0.36 US Platinum 8,586 6,513 7,672 25.36 -0.04 US Palladium 3,480 4,650 4,211 (Additional reporting by Jan Harvey in London, Graphic by Van Tsui; Editing by Dale Hudson)