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. [ID:nLDE7351QH]
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)
Reuters Terminal users can see related news and prices by double clicking on the codes in brackets: - All precious metals headlines - Precious metals market reports - Daily fixing headlines - Technical analysis - Indian gold reports - European gold prices <0#PREC> - London interbank gold forward rates <0#GOFO=> - London silver forwards - Gold lease rates <0#LGLR=> - London Bullion Market Association - New York Comex gold <0#GC:> and silver <0#SI:> - New York platinum <0#PL:> and palladium <0#PA:> - Asian gold prices <0#PREC> - Australian precious metals prices <0#AUPREC=> - Shanghai Gold Exchange prices - Hong Kong gold exchange prices - Hong Kong bullion prices - Indian bullion prices <0#PREC-IN> - Japanese producer prices For Related News and other topics, double click on one of these codes: SPEED GUIDES