SINGAPORE, Feb 1 - Gold traded largely unchanged on Friday, heading for a small weekly rise as investors await key U.S. employment data to assess the state of recovery in the world's top economy.
   
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold traded little changed at $1,662.15 an ounce by 0037 GMT, on course for a weekly rise of 0.2 percent, paring some losses from the previous week's 1.5-percent slide.
   
* U.S. gold inched up 0.1 percent to $1,662.20.
   
* The U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, due at 1330 GMT, is likely to show that hiring by U.S. employers likely held steady in January. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have risen 160,000 while unemployment rate hold steady at 7.8 percent.
 
* The U.S. labour market report comes one day after a mixed bag of data released on Thursday. Jobless claims rose last week, while American income growth surged in December and a survey showed private sector employment rose faster than expected last month.
   
* China is due to release its official January purchasing managers' index at 0100 GMT, which is expected to show the country's factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in nine months.
   
* The CME Group said it will add platinum and palladium options onto its Globex electronic platform beginning late in February in a move to capitalize on growing investor interest in platinum group metals (PGMs).
   
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MARKET NEWS
* U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday on caution ahead of Friday's all-important jobs report, but the S&P 500 still posted its best monthly gain since October 2011.
   
* The yen plumbed fresh multi-year lows against its G3 peers on Friday, having posted its biggest monthly decline in 12 years versus the euro as the market positioned for more aggressive easing from the Bank of Japan.
       
    DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
   
 0100 China      NBS Manufacturing PMI                      
 0145 China      HSBC Manufacturing PMI Final              
 0500 India      HSBC Markit Manufacturing PMI            
 0843 Italy      Markit/ADACI Manufacturing PMI            
 0848 France     Markit Manufacturing PMI                  
 0853 Germany    Markit/BME Manufacturing PMI              
 0858 Euro zone  Markit Manufacturing PMI                 
 1000 Euro zone  Inflation                                 
 1000 Euro zone  Unemployment rate                        
 1330 U.S.       Non-farm payrolls                         
 1330 U.S.       Unemployment rate                        
 1500 U.S.       ISM Manufacturing PMI                    
 1500 U.S.       Construction spending                     
   
    PRICES
 
 Precious metals prices 0037 GMT
  Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg    Volume
  Spot Gold        1662.15   -0.84   -0.05     -0.74
  Spot Silver        31.42    0.01   +0.03      3.76
  Spot Platinum    1671.24   -5.01   -0.30      8.88
  Spot Palladium    740.72    0.25   +0.03      7.04
  COMEX GOLD FEB3  1662.20    1.60   +0.10     -0.81           20
  COMEX SILVER MAR3  31.45    0.09   +0.30      4.02          454
  Euro/Dollar       1.3611
  Dollar/Yen         91.64
  COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months