By Tatyana Shumsky Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Gold futures held steady while silver prices slipped Monday as traders looked to currency markets for direction. The most actively traded gold contract, for June delivery, was recently up $3.90, or 0.3%, at $1,497.50 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Thinly traded May-delivery gold was down 0.3%, or $3.70, at $1,489.70 per troy ounce. The euro held strong in New York trading hours, shaking off the shock arrest over the weekend of International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual-assault charges. The euro was recently at $1.4186, from $1.4122 late Friday in New York. Dollar-denominated gold and silver futures seem cheaper to foreign currency holders as the greenback eases. "You are seeing some stability to the euro, which is giving strength to gold," said Stephen Platt, analyst with Archer Financial Services. "People are more inclined to come into the gold market, given its stability relative to silver," he said. Strauss-Khan will miss a scheduled meeting of euro-area finance ministers to discuss the next steps in the long-running European debt crisis, potentially complicating efforts to resolve Greece's debt crisis and threatens to weaken the IMF's central role in any rescue package. "Attention will remain on Euro zone debt issues, particularly with a meeting in Brussels today to decide on the outcome of a bailout package for Portugal," analysts at Barclays Capital said in a note to clients, adding that the long-running concerns over sovereign debt will continue to support precious metals prices, in particular gold. Silver futures pared earlier losses as the euro strengthened throughout the morning. Silver for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, was recently down 42.3 cents, or 1.2%, at $34.590 per troy ounce. May-delivery silver was down 59.1 cents, or 1.7%, at $34.420 per troy ounce. -By Tatyana Shumsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3095; tatyana.shumsky@dowjones.com

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