(Updates prices) 
    By Lewa Pardomuan 
    SINGAPORE, May 1 (Reuters) - Gold jumped more than 1 percent 
on Thursday, regaining its appeal as an alternative investment 
after the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates but left 
unclear the outlook for more cuts. 
    Gold <XAU=> rose to $880.05/881.05 an ounce from 
$864.65/866.05 an ounce late in New York with the help of 
purchases from speculators in Japan -- off a three-month low of 
$862.30 an ounce hit on Wednesday. 
    "There's some follow-through buying from the Japanese once 
the market opened. Right now, we'll meet some resistance around 
the $882 and $885 levels," said Louis Lok, a dealer at Bank of 
China in Hong Kong. 
    "But technically, I would say the market is not yet out of 
the bearish sentiment. We need to break $890 and stand above this 
level," said Lok, who pegged support around $872. 
    Gold has struggled to sustain gains since hitting a record at 
$1,030.80 an ounce on March 17 as investors booked profits and 
recently, due to oil's drop from a lifetime high and expectations 
the Fed was ready to signal a pause in its interest-rate cutting. 
    Overall trading was slow in Asia due to holidays in China and 
much of Southeast Asia. 
    Investors struggled to interpret the decision by the Fed, 
which cut interest rates by 25 basis points but failed to deliver 
an unequivocal statement that the worst was over for the economy. 
    In theory, lower rates boost gold's appeal as an alternative 
investment to stocks and bonds. 
   The dollar inched down to 103.80 yen <JPY=>, having fallen 
from a two-month high of 104.89 yen hit on Wednesday before the 
Fed lowered rates to 2 percent. The euro edged up to $1.5637 
<EUR=>. 
    Gold futures for June delivery <GCM8> on the COMEX division 
of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $13.5 an ounce to $878.6 
an ounce. 
    Spot platinum <XPT=> rose to $1,917.50/1,937.50 an ounce from 
$1,906/1,921 late in New York. 
    Most active Tokyo April platinum futures <0#JPL:> added 69 
yen per gram to 6,299 yen. 
    Silver <XAG=> rose to $16.96/17.02 an ounce from $16.60/15.65 
an ounce. Spot palladium <XPD=> rose to $417.50/425.50 an ounce 
from $410.50/418.50 late in New York. 
  Precious metals prices at 0129 GMT 
 Metal             Last    Change  Pct chg  YTD pct chg  Turnover 
 Spot Gold         880.20    6.70   +0.77      5.70 
 Spot Silver        16.96    0.11   +0.65     14.83 
 Spot Platinum    1932.00   14.50   +0.76     27.11 
 Spot Palladium    417.50    0.00   +0.00     13.45 
 TOCOM Gold       2964.00   37.00   +1.26     -3.14        20199 
 TOCOM Platinum   6300.00   70.00   +1.12     18.00         7904 
 TOCOM Silver      572.50   17.00   +3.06      5.82          570 
 TOCOM Palladium  1433.00   -4.00   -0.28      6.07          746 
 Euro/Dollar       1.5637 
 Dollar/Yen        103.75 
 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is 
priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce. 
 (Editing by Ben Tan) 
 (([email protected]; +65 6870 3834;  Reuters 
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