PRECIOUS-Gold holds near 1-week low, ETFs extend losses

SINGAPORE, May 2 (Reuters) - Gold held near its weakest level in almost a week on Thursday, shrugging off the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its loose monetary policy, pressured by a drop in holdings on exchange-traded funds, equities and other commodities. FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold fell $1.18 an ounce to $1,455.56 by 0035 GMT, having shed more than 1 percent in the previous session -- its biggest daily drop since bullion's historic decline in mid-April. It hit a low of $1,439.74 on Wednesday, the weakest since April 25. * Fears that central banks' money-printing to buy assets will stoke inflation have been a key driver in boosting gold, which rallied to an 11-month high last October after the Fed announced its third round of aggressive economic stimulus. * U.S. gold stood at $1,455.20 an ounce, up $9.00. * SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.31 percent to 1,075.23 tonnes on Wednesday -- their lowest since September 2009. * In its statement following a two-day meeting, the Fed reiterated it will continue to buy $85 billion worth of bonds each month to support a moderately expanding economy that still has too high an unemployment rate. * Gold's historic sell-off last month has intensified a disconnect between funds that sold on dissatisfaction over bullion's underperformance and individual investors who could not get enough physical gold coins and bars at bargain prices. * For the top stories on metals and other news, click , or MARKET NEWS * Asian shares were capped on Thursday, weighed by a fall in U.S. equities overnight and caution before the European Central Bank's interest rate decision later in the session. * Oil, gold and copper tumbled on Wednesday after renewed worries over the Chinese and U.S. economies drove investors to sell raw materials on the first trading day of May, a month known for historically weak commodity prices. DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0145 China HSBC Final manufacturing PMI 0743 Italy Markit/ADACI manufacturing PMI 0748 France Markit manufacturing PMI 0753 Germany Markit/BME manufacturing PMI 0758 Euro zone Markit manufacturing PMI 1145 European Central Bank announces rate decision 1230 ECB President Mario Draghi holds news conference 1230 U.S. International trade 1230 U.S. Weekly jobless claims 1345 U.S. ISM-New York business activity PRICES Precious metals prices 0035 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1455.56 -1.18 -0.08 -13.08 Spot Silver 23.52 -0.01 -0.04 -22.32 Spot Platinum 1469.50 -1.50 -0.10 -4.27 Spot Palladium 683.50 -2.00 -0.29 -1.23 COMEX GOLD JUN3 1455.20 9.00 +0.62 -13.16 3838 COMEX SILVER JUL3 23.53 0.18 +0.78 -22.18 1567 Euro/Dollar 1.3176 Dollar/Yen 97.16 COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)