PRECIOUS-Gold ticks up on US rate-cut hopes; US-China trade talks in focus

* Focus on US CPI data due out on Friday * Spot gold hit all-time high of $4,378.69/oz last week (Adds comments and updates for Asia morning trade) By Brijesh Patel and Swati Verma Oct 20 (Reuters) – Gold prices edged higher on Monday, helped by chances of further U.S. interest rate cuts, while investors awaited U.S. inflation data and U.S.-China trade negotiations this week for further direction. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $4,253.33 per ounce, as of 0331 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery climbed 1.3% to $4,266.30 per ounce. Spot silver rose 0.5% to $52.12 per ounce. Prices fell about 4.4% on Friday in their worst session since early April, after hitting a record high of $54.47 earlier in the day. "The gold market is trying to find its footing after Friday's selloff. Sentiment is normalising, cooling down a bit, after a few weeks of mania," said Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda. Gold fell about 1.8% on Friday, the most since mid-May, after U.S. President Donald Trump said his proposed 100% tariff on goods from China would not be sustainable. He said he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he thought things would be fine with China. "The next big hurdle will be U.S.-China talks this week and the CPI release out of the United States on Friday. Something that I think has allowed for this surge in gold prices is the vacuum created by an absence of economic data." Figures due out on Friday are expected to show U.S. core inflation held at 3.1% in September, but should not trouble markets given the Federal Reserve has not pushed back against pricing for rate cuts. Markets are fully pricing in for a quarter-point Fed rate cut this month, and another one in December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Non-yielding bullion has gained more than 60% year-to-date, hitting an all-time high of $4,378.69 on Friday, driven by geopolitical tensions, aggressive rate-cut bets, central bank buying, de-dollarisation and robust exchange-traded fund inflows. Elsewhere, platinum fell 0.8% to $1,596.88 per ounce and palladium gained 0.2% to $1,476.97 per ounce. (Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Subhranshu Sahu)

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