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Early NY gold quiet before quarter's end, holiday

NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - COMEX gold treaded water above 7-week lows early Monday, with players averse to moving prices too far before closing books for the quarter, especially with the July 4 market holiday at the end of the week.

"We have a $1.50 range. There's just nothing out here this morning. We were just wondering whether we were going to see any activity in the early part of the week before the holiday," said floor broker.

August gold was unchanged at $345.50 at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), trading between $346.20 and $344.50, after touching its lowest level since May 8 at $343.30 on Friday.

The euro provided little direction. It toyed with Friday's 6-week low then firmed back up to $1.1438/41 by mid morning, making dollar-priced gold more affordable to European buyers.

The threat of further liquidation still hung over the COMEX. But bulls have nearly halved their exposure since August gold topped at $375.80 on May 27, its priciest since reaching a 6-1/2 year high in February.

The CFTC said late Friday that the net speculative long position in COMEX gold fell to 48,884 lots as of last Tuesday from 64,175 contracts in the week ended Tuesday June 17. Funds were long around 85,000 contracts a month ago.

"A year ago commercial interests were happy buyers just above $300 per ounce, now they seem content buying in the $340s," wrote Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management in Monday's market commentary. "The trend is most decidedly up but speculative excesses in this market always seem to get punished."

Spot gold was trading at $345.20/5.90, just up from $344.90/5.60 late Friday. London's morning fix was $345.15.

September silver was up 1.7 cents at $4.535 an ounce, trading between $4.54 and $4.51. Monday is the first day of delivery notices for July silver.

Spot silver was at $4.52/54, up from $4.50/52 at the close and the fix at $4.505.

NYMEX October platinum was $1.80 higher at $658.00 an ounce. Spot fetched $666.00/671.00.

September palladium was up $3.50 at $180.00. Spot palladium was at $177.00/182.00.