PRECIOUS-Gold falls on euro jitters, silver stocks soar

* Rising concerns over euro zone add to pressure on gold
* Monday's volume set to be one of the lowest of year
* COMEX silver warehouse stocks rise sharply as demand lags
* Coming up: U.S. housing starts on Tuesday

By Frank Tang and Jan Harvey
NEW YORK/LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - Gold prices fell in
quiet trade on Monday, following crude oil's losses, as worries
about Spain's ability to repay its debt and a resurgent euro
zone debt crisis extended bullion's loss to a second day.
Silver traded flat, with data showing stocks in U.S.
exchange warehouses rose sharply due to lackluster industrial
demand and rising mine output.
Bullion came under pressure as Spanish 10-year government
bond yields broke through the 6 percent mark for the first time
since December, overshadowing optimism generated by encouraging
U.S. retails sales data.
The metal has dropped about 8 percent from near $1,800 an
ounce at the end of February as a strong run of positive U.S.
economic data reduced market hopes about a third round of asset
buy back by the Federal Reserve known as quantitative easing to
boost growth.
"As long as the general impression of economic stability is
positive, money managers will tend to move away from the yellow
metal and towards the paper investments with promise of higher
returns," said Carlos Perez-Santalla, precious metals trader at
PVM Futures.
Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,649.71 an ounce
by 2:32 p.m. EST (1832 GMT).
U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled down
$10.50 an ounce at $1,649.70.
Trading volume in U.S. gold futures was about 40 percent
below its 30-day average, on track to be one of the lowest for
the year, preliminary Reuters data showed.

Bullion fell on Monday as safe-haven U.S. Treasury debt
prices rose due to renewed jitters about Spanish debt. Tumbling
Brent crude oil prices due to easing supply worries also
pressured gold.
Concerns over the euro zone were a key factor behind the
rise in gold prices last year, but have since been outweighed by
the impact of a stronger dollar.
Earlier in the session, the metal tracked losses in U.S.
equities, but gold remained lowered even though the Dow turned
higher with a triple-digit gain.
Silver was up 10 cents at $31.47 an ounce. The
gold/silver ratio, or the number of silver ounces needed to buy
an ounce of gold, held near its highest since late January,
suggesting silver's underperformance relative to gold.
U.S. silver stocks in exchange-approved warehouses rose
141.59 million ounces as of Friday, up from 140.61 million
ounces in the previous day and 102.65 million ounces a year ago.
SI-STX-COMEX, according to Reuters data.
Among other precious metals, spot platinum was down
1.5 percent at $1,570.49 an ounce. Spot palladium was up
1.5 percent at $648.62 an ounce.

2:32 PM EDT LAST/ NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
SETTLE CHNG CHNG VOL
US Gold JUN 1649.70 -10.50 -0.6 1642.00 1659.60 104,356
US Silver MAY 31.373 -0.017 -0.1 31.175 31.700 35,531
US Plat JUL 1575.80 -12.10 -0.8 1563.00 1589.90 5,807
US Pall JUN 650.70 3.50 0.5 635.50 653.75 2,298

Gold 1649.71 -8.87 -0.5 1641.85 1657.30
Silver 31.470 0.010 0.0 31.210 31.690
Platinum 1570.49 -24.51 -1.5 1565.00 1581.49
Palladium 648.62 9.52 1.5 639.27 651.25

TOTAL MARKET VOLUME 30-D ATM VOLATILITY
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG CURRENT CHG
US Gold 111,942 199,141 197,175 19.64 -0.63
US Silver 44,215 51,755 59,826 30.89 0.93
US Platinum 5,859 10,412 8,459 19.92 0.05
US Palladium 2,301 3,525 4,697

(Editing by Bob Burgdorfer and Sofina Mirza-Reid)