(Reuters) - Gold fell on Friday from near six-month highs hit the previous day, with the European Central Bank's (ECB) bond buying programme placed on the backburner as markets awaited U.S. jobs data for clues on possible stimulus from the Federal Reserve. Spot gold was down 0.3 percent at 1,695.76 per ounce by 1030 GMT, having hit $1,712.91 on Thursday, its highest since March 12. Bullion was on course for a 0.1 percent rise for the week, following two consecutive weekly gains. U.S. gold dropped 0.4 percent to $1,697.40. The market saw giddy price action on Thursday, rushing to its loftiest since early March after the ECB unveiled a new and potentially unlimited bond purchase plan to lower borrowing costs of debt-laden nations, in the latest effort to fight the euro zone debt crisis. Dealers said that gold was taking an inevitable breather after several legs higher, with the focus squarely on U.S. non-farm payrolls, particularly after the U.S. private sector added the most jobs in August since March. If the private sector numbers foretell a strong U.S. August payrolls report it could dampen the case for a third round of quantitative easing, also known as QE3, by the Federal Reserve. However, most subscribing to a bullish outlook for gold said the case for holding bullion had not changed, with the jury still out on further Fed stimulus. "Investors still view gold as a non-paper currency and I don't think anything the ECB said or did yesterday has changed people's psyche. Really they just kicked the can down the road," said Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at Scotia Mocatta. Central bank cash printing raises the inflation outlook and adds to gold's attraction as a hedge against rising prices. Technical analysis suggested spot gold might retrace to $1,680 per ounce during the day, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said. While the private sector data was positive, some analysts still believe the U.S. labour market is weak enough for the Fed to take action. "We think the payrolls number will be very poor, which should be positive for gold as it would confirm that the Fed will do something at the next FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting," said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. SocGen is forecasting a payrolls rise of 70,000 in August, versus a consensus expectation of 125,000 in a Reuters poll. ETF HOLDINGS Holdings of gold-backed exchange-traded funds hit a record high of 72.1 million ounces, or 2,044 tonnes, by Thursday. ETF holdings had gained more than 38 tonnes so far this year, with the majority of the rise occurring since August when hopes for stimulus from central banks started to run high. In Asia's physical market, dealers continued to report scrap flow as prices remained near $1,700 per ounce. "We still see scrap flow today and there is even some buying interest crawling back in," said a Singapore-based dealer. In other metals, silver was down 1 percent at $32.36 per ounce after hitting a five-month high of $32.98 in the previous session. Silver's Relative Strength Index fell to 74 from the previous session's 80.452, the highest since April 2011 and suggesting the market was heavily overbought. An RSI reading above 70 indicates the underlying asset is overbought. The most-active COMEX silver futures contract lost 1.1 percent to $32.30. Platinum was steady at $1,577.25 with focus still on dominant producer South Africa. Two percent of shift workers at Lonmin Plc's South African operations turned up for work on Friday, the platinum miner said. The world's third-largest platinum miner has been crippled by a four-week strike at its Marikana operations. The company signed a "peace deal" with some of its unions on Thursday. However, that did not include militant breakaway union AMCU.

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