NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Gold futures popped to a 19-day high early Monday in New York, with trade thinned by Easter holidays overseas and stimulus limited as the dollar held steady, dealers said.
"Gold moved up a little bit only because of some light trade buying this morning," said a floor broker.
COMEX June gold at 9:09 a.m. EDT was up $3.90 at $331.50 an ounce, trading from $327.60 to $332.70, its highest since April 2.
The market was missing many key players with London, Sydney and Hong Kong closed until Tuesday and New York traders just getting their bearings after a three-day weekend.
"There is a little bit of Far East buying here. It's kind of weird with the dollar strengthening up," said a bullion trader.
Gold is seen as an alternative currency and tends to move in the opposite direction from the dollar. The euro was slightly softer at $1.0861/67, from $1.0871/77 late Thursday, before markets closed for Good Friday.
The dollar rose to 120.12/20 yen from 119.56/64, helping push the price of yen-based gold futures on TOCOM to near three-week highs.
Spot gold was quoted at $330.00/75, up from the last close at $326.85/7.55.
Iraq was wearing off as an influence and the markets shifted focus to the struggling economy and U.S. corporate earnings.
The only U.S. data due Monday was the 10 a.m. EDT release of March leading economic indicators. But the markets were more interested in March durable goods orders on Thursday, and especially Friday's advance estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product.
The CFTC Commitments of Traders report released late Friday showed funds had more room to buy gold, with the net speculative long position in COMEX futures contracting to 21,305 contracts as of last Tuesday from 25,697 contracts the week before.
NYMEX July platinum was up $3.80 at $628.50 an ounce. Spot was quoted at $638.00/643.00.
June palladium steadied after prices fell to six year lows last week. It was up $4.25 at $157.00. Spot palladium was quoted at $154.00/159.00.