Gold steady; investors await cues from Fed

Gold was mostly unchanged early on Tuesday amid easing equities and a steady US dollar, with investors sitting tight awaiting cues from the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting on a possible interest rate hike.        FUNDAMENTALS    * Spot gold was nearly unchanged at USD 1,277.50 an ounce at 0111 GMT. * US gold futures were up 0.43 percent at USD 1,278.60 per ounce. * The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was steady at 98.411.* Asian stocks wallowed near six-week lows on Tuesday as investors braced for a looming raft of economic and central bank events. * MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.12 percent.* US consumer spending rose more than expected in September as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and inflation increased steadily, which could bolster expectations of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve in December. * The US economy is on track to grow at a 2.7 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDP Now forecast model showed on Monday. * The euro zone economy grew at the same slow pace in the third quarter as the second and core inflation dipped in October, reinforcing expectations that the European Central Bank will decide to extend its asset-buying programme in December. * The European Central Bank bought 17.195 billion euros (USD 15.72 billion) of public sector assets last week as part of its quantitative easing programme, above the 16.548 billion euros it purchased a week earlier, it said on Monday. * The Bank of Japan is expected to maintain monetary settings and its projection of a moderate economic recovery on Tuesday, even as weak consumption and external headwinds force it to concede that inflation will remain distant from its target for years to come. * Traders on Monday placed a low probability the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at its policy meeting later this week amid mixed economic data and ahead of the US presidential election, according to interest rates futures. * Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust and the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust, have remained unchanged on Friday from Thursday.