* Gold barely budges after modest gains as dollar recovers * Asia stocks at 11-wk high on upbeat US housing, goods data * Investors ponder how long stock market rally will last * SPDR holdings stay at record high By Chikako Mogi TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Gold prices were little changed on Thursday as the dollar recovered, with investors keeping their eyes peeled for signs of risk appetite as Asian shares hit their highest level in 11 weeks. Gold got a boost on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggested he was open to expanding the use of an IMF currency basket, stoking doubts over the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The dollar recovered against the yen on Thursday, after Geithner's comments had pushed the U.S. dollar lower against the Japanese currency and the euro the day before. Geithner later said the dollar would keep its status as the top reserve currency for a long time. [ID:nN25425979] Gold was at $932.05 per ounce at 0245 GMT, down 0.1 percent from New York's notional close of $933.15 on Wednesday. Bullion has recovered nearly 6 percent from a six-week low of $882.90 hit on March 18, but is still 7 percent off the 11-month high above $1,000 set in February, and well under an all-time peak of $1,030.80 hit in March 2008. "I do have to note the developments in the dollar will also play a crucial role in gold's direction as recent talk has been on quantitative easing, the dollar as a reserve currency, etc," said Adrian Koh, an analyst at Phillip Futures. "The longer-term effects of quantitative easing and a dispersion of the dollar as a reserve currency will probably be negative for the dollar, and if the normal correlation of a negative correlation between gold and the dollar holds, then gold should be supported in the long term," he said. Gold is often viewed as an alternative to holding the dollar, rising when the greenback falls. A weaker dollar also makes gold less expensive for holders of other currencies. The stock rally has dampened demand for gold over the past couple of sessions, as investors saw risk appetite starting to kick in again. But traders and analysts remain sceptical of whether a big rally would be sustainable. "The question is how long this stock market rally will go. And since many people still think that everything is not fine yet ... Any turn back towards bad news and data will bring the safe-haven plays back," Koh said. Asian stocks rose to their highest in 11 weeks on Thursday, bolstered by strong U.S. new home sales and durable goods data out on Wednesday. [MKTS/GLOB] The U.S. government reported that new home sales unexpectedly rose at their fastest pace in 10 months in February, while U.S. orders for long-lasting manufactured goods also unexpectedly rebounded in the same month. [ID:nN25415362]. The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, said its holdings remained at 1,124.99 tonnes on March 25, unchanged from the record hit the previous day. [GOL/SPDR] For details on the gold holdings of the ETF listed in New York and co-listed on other exchanges, click on: here For a graphic, click on: here Prices as of 0300 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 931.90 -1.25 -0.13 5.88 Spot Silver 13.42 -0.03 -0.22 18.55 Spot Platinum 1130.00 10.00 +0.89 21.24 Spot Palladium 211.00 2.50 +1.20 14.36 TOCOM Gold 2944.00 23.00 +0.79 14.42 12609 TOCOM Platinum 3587.00 45.00 +1.27 35.26 6282 TOCOM Silver 419.90 4.90 +1.18 31.51 111 TOCOM Palladium 682.00 26.00 +3.96 24.00 136 Euro/Dollar 1.3563 Dollar/Yen 97.73 TOCOM prices in yen per gram, except TOCOM silver which is priced in yen per 10 grams. Spot prices in $ per ounce. (Additional reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Ben Tan)

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