SINGAPORE, April 6 (Reuters) - Gold held steady near a four-week high on Tuesday, while palladium eased after rallying to its highest level in two years in the previous session on buying by autocatalyst makers and investment demand. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold was at $1,129.60 an ounce by 0040 GMT, down 10 cents from New York's notional close on Monday, when it hit an intraday high of $1,133.20, its strongest level since March 8, to track gains in platinum group metals. * Palladium fell $1.25 to $498.75 after hitting $500.50 on Monday. Sister metal platinum also fell after rallying to its highest since August 2008 at $1,705.50 in the previous session. * Inflows into U.S. platinum and palladium exchange traded funds and optimism about the global economic recovery have spurred buying of the underlying platinum group metals, which are used in the auto industry for catalytic converters and also in jewellery. * U.S. gold futures for June delivery fell $2.5 an ounce to $1,131.3. * The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, said its holdings stood at 1,129.823 tonnes as of April 5, unchanged from the previous business day. [GOL/SPDR] MARKET NEWS * The dollar steadied near 7-month highs against the yen on Tuesday, underpinned by a surge in U.S. Treasury yields, while the Australian dollar was strong ahead of an interest rate decision. The euro edged lower to $1.3470, from $1.3477 late in New York on Monday. [USD/] * The Dow pushed up near the 11,000 level on Monday, but Japan's Nikkei average edged down 0.1 percent on Tuesday, as falls in exporters on a stronger yen outweighed gains in resources stocks. [.T] [.N] * U.S. crude futures steadied above $86 a barrel after settling at the highest level in 18 months the previous day and ahead of the release of U.S. oil inventory statistics later on Tuesday. [O/R] DATA EVENTS * The following data is expected on Tuesday - Bank of Japan begins two-day policy review - Australia central bank announces interest rate decision (0430 GMT) - Japan Feb leading and coincident indicators (0500 GMT) - UK consumer confidence for March (0830 GMT) - U.S. ICSC chain store sales (1145 GMT) - Minutes of FOMC March meeting (1800 GMT) RELATED NEWS > US services sector grows at fastest clip since '06[nN05117920] > US job index up 7th straight month-Conf Board [nNLL5FE63U] > Obama seeks mkt-based China FX; Congress impatient[nN05185135] > Nikkei edges down, Fast Retailing extends losses [nTOE63405U] > Australia's central bank may raise rates Tuesday [nSGE6340IS] > Indonesia central bank set to keep rates steady [nJAK272911] > Greek deputy PM: Portugal may be next -report [nLDE634069] > China economist sees "room for talk" on yuan row [nTOE634050] Precious metals prices at 0040 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Turnover Spot Gold 1129.60 -0.10 -0.01 3.09 Spot Silver 17.98 -0.04 -0.22 6.83 Spot Platinum 1693.00 -12.50 -0.73 15.41 Spot Palladium 498.75 -1.25 -0.25 23.00 TOCOM Gold 3434.00 4.00 +0.12 5.37 17976 TOCOM Platinum 5120.00 28.00 +0.55 16.87 7387 TOCOM Silver 55.00 -0.10 -0.18 6.38 274 TOCOM Palladium 1505.00 10.00 +0.67 29.18 321 Euro/Dollar 1.3457 Dollar/Yen 94.27 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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