Gold steady, supported by inflation, rate concerns

Gold prices held steady on Tuesday, as investors weighed the news of Osama bin Laden's death against other factors inclhow to identify precious metal oreuding low interest rates in the United States and global inflation concerns. The death of al Qaeda's leader accelerated spot gold's drop to $1,540.39 from a record high of $1,575.79 on Monday, but trade has been mixed ever since.

"Over the last few weeks gold has become overbought," said Peter Fung, head of dealing at Wing Fung Precious Metals in Hong Kong, expecting the market to remain volatile in the near term. The price level at $1,500 is seen as a strong support for gold, Fung added. Spot gold edged up 0.2 percent to $1,547.14 an ounce by 0612 GMT, after trading in a range of about $35 on Monday, its second-biggest one-day range since March 15. COMEX gold futures fell as much as 2.6 percent earlier in the day, before trimming losses to $1,547.90, down 0.6 percent from the previous close.