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SINGAPORE, Oct 12 (Reuters) Gold gained on Thursday as jewellers and bargain hunters snapped up the metal after it failed to crack a stubborn $580 resistance level the previous day.

Spot gold opened at $572.50 an ounce, hit a high of $574.40 and was quoted at $573.00/573.75 by 0413 GMT. The metal was last quoted at $572.60/573.60 an ounce in New York.

Gold hit an intraday high of $578.80 on Wednesday before dropping back, tracking the fortunes of oil.

''Immediate resistance for gold now appears to be coming in at $580 where it has failed to crack three times in the past six days,'' said Investec Australia in a daily report.

''This coupled with a stronger U.S. dollar suggests there is little reason to expect gold to break through that level soon.

On the contrary one might expect a break of $570 and a re-test of the $560 level before long,'' it said.

The key gold futures contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange , currently August 2007, rose eight yen per gram to 2,225 yen, driven by modest gains in New York's COMEX market.

''There's sporadic buying by the Japanese and physical buyers but I think we still are going to trade in a $10 range,'' said a dealer in Hong Kong.

''We'd probably have to wait for something to happen in the geopolitical front, wait for economic data from the U.S., and watch oil,'' he said Oil traded below $58 a barrel on Thursday, holding near 2006 lows struck on Wednesday, as dealers waited for OPEC to hammer out the details of a price-support plan to cut output by a million barrels per day.

The market also anticipated a rise in U.S. crude inventories.

''With OPEC's unsuccessful haggling over oil prices it appears that oil is likely to hang around below $60 per barrel for the time being,'' Investec Australia said.

The dollar hovered near a 10-month high versus the yen as minutes from the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting further set back expectations for a cut in U.S. interest rates.

The dollar eased to 119.60 yen , within sight of a 10-month high of 119.84 yen traded on the EBS electronic trading platform on Wednesday.

The euro inched up to $1.2530 but still near a three-month trough of $1.2502 hit on Wednesday.

For more clues about the state of the economy and future rate moves by the Fed, the market will scrutinise the central bank's Beige Book report on regional economic conditions, due at 1800 GMT.

The market is also waiting for U.S. August trade figures due at 1230 GMT and expected to show the deficit shrunk to $66.7 billion from $68.0 billion in July.

Platinum was steady at $1,067.50/1,072.50 an ounce but not far from a 6-month low of $1,060 hit on Wednesday.

Palladium fell to $302/307 an ounce from $304/309 in New York.

Silver edged up to $11.25/11.30 an ounce from $11.18/11.25 late in New York.

REUTERS PKS DS1510