By Rujun Shen SINGAPORE, May 6 (Reuters) - Silver rebounded on Friday from its biggest one-day dollar fall since 1980, and gold also recovered as cheaper prices lured in Asian investors keeping a wary eye on U.S. employment data due later in the day. Silver slumped 12 percent on Thursday after another margin hike by the CME Group on COMEX silver futures, dragging gold down 3 percent and triggering a brutal sell-off that sent commodities from oil to copper sharply lower. Buyers in Asia have taken the opportunity to enter a market that has seen spot gold fell more than $100 off a record high in just four days and spot silver shed 30 percent from a record peak of $49.51 hit on April 28. Spot silver rose by 2.5 percent to $35.54 an ounce, snapping a five-day losing streak. It is still on track for a 26-percent weekly loss, its biggest since the early 1980s. COMEX silver SIcv1 fell more than 5 percent to $34.27 in early trade, before regaining some ground to $35.55. It was poised to lose 27 percent over the week in its sharpest fall since March 1980, when an attempt to corner the silver market by the Hunt brothers, two Texas oil tycoons, fell apart. "Prices have dropped so much over the past few days and bargain hunters are in," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures, adding that the weak outlook for U.S. employment data helped add to the lure of gold. U.S. payroll growth likely eased in April as employers responded to rising gasoline prices by scaling back on hiring, economists said. [ID:nN03301605] A worse-than-expected figure could further fuel the commodities sell-off by deepening fears that the world's largest economy is not out of woods yet, although it could benefit gold as a safe haven. "Gold is a better bet than silver or oil, as losses would be capped by its safe-haven status," said Ong of Phillip Futures. Investors rushing to exit the market trimmed their positions in the iShares Silver Trust, the world's biggest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, by more than 1 percent after a 5 percent decline the previous day. Holdings stood at 10,268.92 tonne by May 5, the lowest since early November. Spot gold rose by more than 1 percent to $1,489.26 an ounce, headed for a 5-percent drop from a week earlier, its worst week since March 2009. COMEX gold GCcv1 gained 0.5 percent to $1,489.40 an ounce. "From a fundamental point of view, people are really starting to question where the U.S. economic recovery is and whether asset prices should be at such high levels," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney. "When we roll off the stimulus in June, what next? Is the U.S. economy going to fall flat or behave itself?" Precious metals prices 0300 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1489.26 17.56 +1.19 4.92 Spot Silver 35.54 0.87 +2.51 15.17 Spot Platinum 1793.24 34.29 +1.95 1.46 Spot Palladium 714.72 7.64 +1.08 -10.60 TOCOM Gold 3864.00 -223.00 -5.46 3.62 90899 TOCOM Platinum 4690.00 -173.00 -3.56 -0.13 18010 TOCOM Silver 92.10 -25.30 -21.55 13.70 4922 TOCOM Palladium 1864.00 -183.00 -8.94 -11.11 532 COMEX GOLD JUN1 1489.40 8.00 +0.54 4.78 17991 COMEX SILVER JUL1 35.55 -0.70 -1.92 14.88 8383 Euro/Dollar 1.4563 Dollar/Yen 80.46 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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