Gold steady before German ruling, Fed meeting

Gold hovered near a six-month high on Tuesday, as investors stayed put ahead of a German court ruling on the euro zone's rescue fund and the Federal Reserve's policy meeting, while a weaker dollar lent support.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold inched up 0.1 percent to $1,733.36 an ounce by 0028 GMT. It hit $1,741.30 last Friday, its highest since February 29.

* U.S. gold was little changed at $1,735.90.

* Moody's warned the United States may lose its top credit rating if next year's budget talks do not produce policies that gradually reduce the country's debt, a day before the Federal Reserve starts its two-day policy meeting which is expected to many to launch another round of quantitative easing.

* Legal experts polled by Reuters unanimously expect Germany's top court to approve the euro zone's new bailout fund and budget rules later in the day, but they also believe it will impose tough conditions limiting Berlin's flexibility on future rescues.

* SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings still stood at 1,293.138 tonnes by September 11, unchanged over the past week.

* South Africa's gold and platinum industries remain in trouble. ANC renegade Julius Malema called on Tuesday for a national strike in South Africa's mining sector, stirring fear of an escalation in the labour unrest already buffeting the mining sector in the continent's largest economy.

MARKET NEWS

* The Dow industrials closed at the highest level in nearly five years on Tuesday in a lightly traded session before key decisions in Germany and the United States that could give markets a further boost.

* The dollar index wallowed near a four-month low hit in the previous session, after rating agency Moody's threatened to downgrade the U.S. government debt.

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Editing by Ed Davies)