PRECIOUS-Gold steadies below record $4,600/oz as investors book profits

Gold hit record high of $4,629.94/oz on MondaySpot silver hit all-time high of $86.22/oz on MondayCiti raises 0-3 month price target for gold to $5,000/oz, $100/oz for silver(Updates for Asia morning trade)By Ishaan AroraJan 13 (Reuters) - Gold prices were broadly steady on Tuesday, trading below a record $4,600/ounce level reached in the last session amid sharpened geopolitical and economic uncertainty as investors booked profits.Spot gold (XAU=) traded little changed at $4,593.81 per ounce as of 0357 GMT, while U.S. gold futures (GCcv1) for February delivery slipped 0.3% to $4,602.70.“There’s probably a few people out there just booking some short term profits but as we saw yesterday the dip in Asia hours could be bought pretty quickly,” said Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com.Bullion climbed more than 2% to hit an all-time high of $4,629.94 in the previous session as investors piled into safe-haven assets after the Trump administration opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.Further fuelling geopolitical worries, U.S. President Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs its response to the crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in years in the oil exporting nation.Iran’s unrest comes as Trump flexes U.S. muscles internationally, having captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.Non-yielding assets tend to do well in a low-interest-rate environment and when geopolitical or economic risks spike.Citi raised its three-month price targets to $5,000/oz for gold and $100/oz for silver respectively, citing strong investment momentum and as the multitude of bullish drivers are now likely to remain intact during the first quarter of the year.“The ongoing physical market shortages on silver and platinum group metals could also marginally worsen in the short term due to a potential delay in the Section 232 tariff decisions, which eventually pose large binary risks on trade flows and prices.”Spot silver (XAG=) added 0.6% to $85.42 per ounce after hitting an all-time high of $86.22 on Monday.Spot platinum (XPT=) lost 0.7% to $2,327.43 per ounce after scaling a record peak of $2,478.50 on December 29.Palladium (XPD=) slid 1.4% to $1,817.21 per ounce.