GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares hold recent gains, gold jumps

* Global shares index hits highest in more than 6 years

* Dollar reaches 10-week peak vs yen; euro steady before ECB meeting

* ECB under pressure to ease, but analysts doubt move this week (Updates prices, adds comment, changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON)

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Frankfurt: HX6.F - news) , April 2 (Reuters) - A global stock index edged up to a six-year high on Wednesday, supported by encouraging U.S. economic data as traders focused on Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank and Friday's U.S. jobs numbers, either of which could move markets significantly.

The safe-haven yen touched a 10-week low against the U.S. dollar while spot gold bounced back 1 percent after recent losses, and Brent crude futures hit a fresh 5-month low.

New orders for U.S. factory goods rebounded more than expected in February, with shipments posting their biggest gain in seven months in a sign the economy was regaining momentum after a recent weather-driven slowdown. Separate data showed U.S. companies picked up the pace of hiring in March, with 191,000 jobs created.

On Wall Street, stocks edged up after the S&P 500 closed at a record high on Tuesday.

"We are in positive economic data territory but to continue to make new highs, we are going to have to see improvement, not just good but great, and that is why we are holding tight here," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.44 points or 0.18 percent, to 16,563.05, the S&P 500 gained 4.2 points or 0.22 percent, to 1,889.72 and the Nasdaq Composite added 8.415 points or 0.2 percent, to 4,276.454.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index edged up 0.3 percent, on track for its seventh straight winning session, boosted by gains at food group Nestle (VTX: NESN.VX - news) and Deutsche Post.

MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's global equity index ticked up 0.2 percent to hit its highest since December 2007.

GOLD UP, OIL FALLS FURTHER

Among commodities, Brent crude fell 1.2 percent to $104.36 a barrel after falling more than 2 percent overnight. U.S. crude eased 0.6 percent to $99.17 a barrel after also falling around 2 percent on Tuesday, amid expectations domestic inventories would grow.

"Oil prices are going to come down but not because of the global economy but because we're finding more ways of getting it out of the ground," said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management in New York.

Spot gold rose 1 percent to $1,291.80 an ounce a day after hitting its lowest since Feb. 11 at $1,277.29.

"At the moment we are seeing some short-covering from those who had been waiting for a deeper correction but that shouldn't take away from the fact that the main event remains the NFPs (non-farm payrolls) on Friday," Saxo Bank senior manager Ole Hansen (Shenzhen: 002412.SZ - news) said.

U.S. Treasuries yields edged higher after the job market data supported expectations of a strong nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note eased 13/32 in price to yield 2.8063 percent, compared to a yield of 2.76 percent late Tuesday. The 30-year Treasury bond price fell 27/32 to yield 3.6499 percent.

The euro dipped against the dollar ahead of Thursday's ECB meeting. Euro zone inflation slid to just 0.5 percent this month, leading some to speculate the ECB will soon loosen policy.

The euro zone single currency was recently down 0.2 percent at $1.3767.

Messages from policymakers have been mixed, though. On Tuesday, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio told a news conference that low inflation was a concern but denied deflation was a threat. That was taken to mean a move by the bank on Thursday was unlikely.

A Reuters poll of 22 euro money-market traders found 18 expected no change in the ECB's 0.25 percent refinancing rate this week. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Sam Forgione; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)