* iShares Silver Trust holdings fall to 6-month low
* Gold snaps 4-day losing streak
* Coming up: U.S. employment, April; 1230 GMT (Updates prices; adds comment)
By Rujun Shen
SINGAPORE, May 6 (Reuters) - Silver rebounded on Friday from its biggest one-day dollar fall since 1980, and gold also recovered as cheaper prices lured in Asian investors keeping a wary eye on U.S. employment data due later in the day.
Buyers are taking advantage of a fall in spot gold of more than $100 from a record high in just four days and spot silver that has shed 30 percent from a record of $49.51 hit on April 28.
Spot silver slumped by 12 percent on Thursday after another margin hike by the CME Group on its COMEX silver futures increased the cost of the trading the metal, dragging gold down 3 percent and triggering a brutal sell-off that sent commodities from oil to copper sharply lower.
"Prices have dropped so much over the past few days and bargain hunters are in," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures, adding that the weak outlook for U.S. employment data helped add to the lure of gold.
Spot silver gained nearly 1 percent to $35 an ounce by 0616 GMT, snapping a five-day losing streak. It is still on track for a 27-percent weekly loss, its biggest since the early 1980s.
The 100-day moving average at $34.39 would lend some support, traders said.
COMEX silver
A worse-than-expected non-farm payrolls figure, after data on Thursday showing U.S. payroll growth eased in April, could further fuel the commodities sell-off by deepening fears that the world's largest economy is not out of woods yet.
Gold though could benefit from its status as a safe haven.
"Gold is a better bet than silver or oil, as losses would be capped by its safe-haven status," said Ong of Phillip Futures.
The reaction of the dollar to non-farm payrolls is also critical. The greenback was down slightly on Friday, after rising 1.5 percent the previous day, it's biggest gain in over six months.
Investors rushing to exit the market trimmed their positions in the iShares Silver Trust, the world's biggest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, by more than 1 percent after a 5 percent decline the previous day. Holdings stood at 10,268.92 tonne by May 5, the lowest since early November.
Spot gold rose by more than 1 percent to $1,486.96 an ounce, headed for a 5-percent drop from a week earlier, its worst week since March 2009.
COMEX gold
"From a fundamental point of view, people are really starting to question where the U.S. economic recovery is and whether asset prices should be at such high levels," said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.
"When we roll off the stimulus in June, what next? Is the U.S. economy going to fall flat or behave itself?" Precious metals prices 0616 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg YTD pct chg Volume Spot Gold 1486.96 15.26 +1.04 4.76 Spot Silver 35.00 0.33 +0.95 13.42 Spot Platinum 1790.24 31.29 +1.78 1.29 Spot Palladium 710.72 3.64 +0.51 -11.10 TOCOM Gold 3863.00 -224.00 -5.48 3.59 119755 TOCOM Platinum 4687.00 -176.00 -3.62 -0.19 24497 TOCOM Silver 90.30 -27.10 -23.08 11.48 7513 TOCOM Palladium 1858.00 -189.00 -9.23 -11.40 586 COMEX GOLD JUN1 1487.20 5.80 +0.39 4.63 28043 COMEX SILVER JUL1 35.05 -1.20 -3.30 13.27 12953 Euro/Dollar 1.4575 Dollar/Yen 80.51 TOCOM prices in yen per gram. Spot prices in $ per ounce. COMEX gold and silver contracts show the most active months (Editing by Michael Urquhart)