SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Gold firmed on Thursday, 
holding near a record hit the previous day with investors 
watching currencies for direction. 
    -- Gold <XAU=> rose to $959.70/960.50 an ounce from 
$957.50/958.30 late in New York. Gold rallied to an all-time high 
of $964.70 an ounce on Wednesday as the dollar tumbled against 
other currencies on possible U.S. interest rate cuts. 
     -- Silver <XAG=> edged up $19.31/19.36 an ounce from 
$19.22/19.27 an ounce, having reached a 27-year peak of $19.45 on 
Wednesday. 
    -- The dollar dropped to all-time lows against the euro and a 
basket of currencies on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman 
Ben Bernanke signaled further interest rate cuts in the fight to 
avert a U.S. recession. [ID:nN27478303] 
    -- Spot platinum <XPT=> dipped to $2,129/2,136 from 
$2,130/2,140 an ounce late in New York and off last week's record 
of $2,192 an ounce. 
    -- The most active February 2009 contract <0#JPL:> on the 
Tokyo Commodity Exchange shed 127 yen per gram to 7,130 yen. 
    -- Palladium <XPD=> hardly changed at $550/554 an ounce. 
 Precious metals prices at 0030 GMT 
 Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg  Turnover 
 Spot Gold         959.70    2.70   +0.28     15.25 
 Spot Silver        19.31    0.09   +0.47     30.74 
 Spot Platinum    2129.00   -1.00   -0.05     40.07 
 Spot Palladium    550.00    0.00   +0.00     49.46 
 TOCOM Gold       3307.00  -12.00   -0.36      8.07        12976 
 TOCOM Platinum   7130.00 -127.00   -1.75     33.55         6313 
 TOCOM Silver      665.90   -2.90   -0.43     23.09          345 
 TOCOM Palladium  1964.00   -6.00   -0.30     45.37         5719 
 Euro/Dollar       1.5114 
 Dollar/Yen        106.29 
 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is 
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce. 
  (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Jan Dahinten) 
 (([email protected]; +65 6870 3834;  Reuters 
Messaging:[email protected])) 
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