SINGAPORE, April 6 (Reuters) - - Gold firmed on Wednesday and held near a lifetime high hit in the previous session as inflation fears lingered after crude and corn rallied to new peaks, while silver edged down, having risen to its strongest level in more than three decades.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold added $1.65 an ounce to $1,452.25 an ounce by 0028 GMT, not far from a record of $1,456.85 hit on Tuesday. Spot silver eased 11 cents to $39.12 an ounce, having rallied to $39.29 on Tuesday, its highest since early 1980.
* U.S. gold futures for June rose $1.5 an ounce to $1,454.0 an ounce.
* The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust , said its holdings inched up to 1,212.745 tonnes by April 5 from 1,211.229 tonnes on March 31.
MARKET NEWS
* U.S. corn futures edged lower in early Asian trading on Wednesday after racing to a record high in the previous session, spurred by thin U.S. supplies.
* The Japanese currency extended its decline early in Asia on Wednesday, hitting fresh 11-month lows against the euro and the Australian dollar and looking to deepen its losses as technical support levels threaten to give way.
* Brent crude jumped to a 2-1/2 year peak above $122 a barrel on Tuesday, gaining for a fourth straight day as conflict and unrest in Africa and the Middle East more than offset China's latest interest rate hike. Precious metals prices 0028 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 1452.25 1.65 +0.11 2.31 Spot Silver 39.12 -0.11 -0.28 26.77 Spot Platinum 1790.49 4.74 +0.27 1.30 Spot Palladium 786.22 -0.16 -0.02 -1.66 TOCOM Gold 3983.00 77.00 +1.97 6.81 34478 TOCOM Platinum 4929.00 58.00 +1.19 4.96 6672 TOCOM Silver 107.20 2.10 +2.00 32.35 1563 TOCOM Palladium 2155.00 15.00 +0.70 2.77 226 Euro/Dollar 1.4241 Dollar/Yen 85.12 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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