SINGAPORE, April 7 (Reuters) - Gold held steady near a
record on Thursday ahead of an expected euro zone interest rate
hike, while silver barely moved after rising to its highest in
more than three decades in the previous session on lingering
worries about inflation.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold eased 31 cents to $1456.69 an ounce by
0045 GMT, after striking a record of $1,461.91 on Wednesday as
the U.S. dollar slipped to a 14-month low against the euro.
* Spot silver hardly changed at $39.37 an ounce,
within sight of a 31-year peak of $39.75 struck on Wednesday.
* U.S. gold futures for June barely moved at $1.457.7
an ounce.
* The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR
Gold Trust , said its holdings fell to 1,205.467 tonnes by
April 6 from 1,212.745 tonnes on April 5.
* The European Central Bank is poised to raise interest
rates from a record low 1.0 percent on Thursday and more is
likely to follow but, fearful of heaping more pain on the euro
zone's stragglers, it will give few clues about when the next
move will come. []
MARKET NEWS
* The yen held near a six-month low against the dollar on
Thursday and an 11-month trough versus the euro ahead of
monetary policy meetings in Japan and the euro zone that are
expected to reinforce widening interest rate differentials.
* Japan's Nikkei average was up nearly 1 percent shortly
after the opening on Thursday as falls in the prior two sessions
took the market to levels investors found attractive, especially
after convincing gains in the U.S. and other overseas equities
markets.
* Brent crude oil prices rose to a 2-1/2-year high above
$123 a barrel on Wednesday before erasing the majority of gains
in volatile trade as market players fretted the recent rally was
overdone.
DATA EVENTS (GMT)
1100 Britain BoE rate decision Apr 2011
1145 EZ ECB rate decision Apr 2011
1230 U.S. Unemployment claims Weekly
1230 U.S. USDA export sales Weekly
Precious metals prices 0045 GMT
Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover
Spot Gold 1456.69 -0.31 -0.02 2.62
Spot Silver 39.37 -0.06 -0.15 27.58
Spot Platinum 1792.24 4.79 +0.27 1.40
Spot Palladium 784.72 6.62 +0.85 -1.85
TOCOM Gold 4008.00 15.00 +0.38 7.48 30844
TOCOM Platinum 4952.00 -3.00 -0.06 5.45 7093
TOCOM Silver 108.30 0.20 +0.19 33.70 1232
TOCOM Palladium 2170.00 1.00 +0.05 3.48 158
Euro/Dollar 1.4310
Dollar/Yen 85.41
TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce.
(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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