* Light buying in gold, silver supports rebound
* Spot gold to fall to $1,456 -technicals [ID:nL3E7GC067]
* Coming up: U.S. retail sales, April; 1230 GMT (Adds details, comments; updates prices)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, May 12 (Reuters) - Spot silver rebounded as much as 2.3 percent and gold edged up on Thursday after losses in the previous session, supported by light buying in Asia, while a firm dollar weighed on market sentiment.
The commodities market took a hit on Wednesday from weak Chinese industrial output data, improving global grain supplies and rising U.S. gasoline stocks.
Light buying was spotted in the physical gold and silver markets, but activities slowed down from Wednesday after market participants were caught off guard by the sell-off, led by a drop of 9 percent in silver.
"People are still worried about commodities -- we have seen some short-covering, some buying on dips today, but the buying is not substantial," said Dick Poon, manager of precious metals at Heraeus in Hong Kong.
China's April industrial output was significantly weaker than forecast, suggesting the world's second-largest economy was cooling, reducing the need for further aggressive monetary policy tightening even as inflation remains high.[ID:nL3E7GB0H2]
"If inflation had been much higher, it would have meant more buying in gold and silver," said a Tokyo-based trader. "Since the economy is slowing and inflation seems under control, it is relatively bearish for precious metals."
Spot silver rose as much as 2.3 percent to $35.88 an
ounce, and eased to $35.43 by 0340 GMT. U.S. silver futures
Bearish technicals contributed to the sharp fall in silver, the trader added.
"It was a perfect textbook scenario -- when silver failed to break above $39.4, the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement level from the high last week, it collapsed," he said.
The gold-silver ratio, used to measure how many ounces of silver is needed to buy an ounce of gold, jumped nearly 9 percent on Wednesday to its highest level since late February, at 42.78.
Silver is likely to consolidate around the $35 level, after a rapid rally pushed it to record high near $50 last week and a dramatic sell-off knocked prices down more than 25 percent last week.
Silver remained the best performer of the precious metals complex, up 15 percent so far this year, compared to gold's 6 percent gain.
Spot gold edged up 0.4 percent to $1,505.19, also rebounding from the losses in the previous session. U.S. gold futures gained 0.3 to $1,505.10.
The $1,490 level was seen to offer strong support to gold, traders said.
"We may see gold prices retrace a bit, as the factors that had supported gold's recent rally are fading," said Hou Xinqiang, an analyst at Jinrui Futures in China.
These factors include the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, high oil prices and dollar weakness, he said.
The dollar index , a measure of the greenback's strength against a basket of currencies, held steady after hitting a three-week high on Wednesday, as fears over Greece's debt crisis weighed on the euro.
Precious metals prices 0340 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1505.19 5.44 +0.36 6.04 Spot Silver 35.43 0.37 +1.06 14.81 Spot Platinum 1774.74 4.64 +0.26 0.41 Spot Palladium 715.72 1.89 +0.26 -10.48 TOCOM Gold 3937.00 -34.00 -0.86 5.58 44184 TOCOM Platinum 4683.00 -44.00 -0.93 -0.28 6157 TOCOM Silver 92.40 -9.90 -9.68 14.07 4128 TOCOM Palladium 1878.00 -39.00 -2.03 -10.44 261 COMEX GOLD JUN1 1505.10 3.70 +0.25 5.89 6637 COMEX SILVER JUL1 35.46 -0.06 -0.17 14.59 5276 Euro/Dollar 1.4231 Dollar/Yen 81.14 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)