* Gold rallies to highest in nearly 3 weeks on oil * Platinum hits 2-week high on gold,wage dispute in S.Africa * ETF holdings slip (Repeats to more subscribers) By Lewa Pardomuan SINGAPORE, July 20 (Reuters) - Gold rose above $944 an ounce on Monday to its strongest in almost three weeks, extending last week's 2.7 percent gain as firm oil prices raised worries of inflation and a drop in the U.S. dollar spurred buying. Bullion, whose gains lifted silver, platinum and palladium, posted its biggest weekly percentage gain in almost two months last week, but trading was thin on Monday with Japanese speculators away for a public holiday. Spot gold was up 0.76 percent at $944 an ounce as of 0612 GMT, compared with New York's notional close of $936.50, It hit an intraday high of $944.55 its strongest since early July. "From what I see, the dollar is weaker, oil prices are higher. So everything just looks positive for gold for a run at the next resistance around $950," said Adrian Koh, analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore, referring to levels seen in June. "Platinum looks a little positive to me, after we moved out of the previous 1-½ month downtrend," he said. A brighter outlook for the financial market has underpinned gold, but the metal is still around 6 percent below an 11-month high above $1,000 an ounce hit in February, and remains vulnerable to movements in both energy and currency markets. Oil rose above $64 a barrel on Monday, having gained 6.1 percent last week -- its first weekly gain in a month on the back of a series of positive economic data and a rally in equities markets. [O/R] Platinum rose $5 an ounce to $1,176 an ounce, having risen around 6 percent last week on physical buying from auto makers in China and a dispute over wages in main producer South Africa. It hit a two-week high at $1,179 an ounce on Monday. The National Union of Mineworkers said it had rejected an improved 8.5 percent pay increase offer from Impala Platinum . [ID:nWEA1353] "There's been some physical buying out of China, although I don't think they will chase the market at current levels," said a dealer in Hong Kong. "A surge in automobile sales in China gives support for the market," he added. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said the country's passenger car sales jumped 47.7 percent in June to 872,900, lifted in part by government stimulus measures including a halving of the sales tax on small cars and subsidies for buyers in rural areas. [ID:nSHA165501] In currencies, the dollar and the yen dropped on Monday as concerns about the U.S. economy abated and broadly better-than-expected corporate earnings supported risk appetite. [USD/] U.S. gold futures for August delivery added $6.5 an ounce to $939.2 an ounce. The contract settled up $2.10 at $944.00 on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. [GOL/X] The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust , said holdings stood at 1,094.54 tonnes as of July 17, down 0.31 tonnes from 1,094.85 tonnes the previous business day. [GOL/SPDR] Precious metals prices at 0540 GMT Metal Last Change Pct chg Day ago pct MA 30 RSI Spot gold $943.65 $7.15 +0.76% +5.20% $860.10 53 Spot silver $13.55 $0.16 +1.19% +13.11% $11.29 46 Spot plat $1176.00 $5.00 +0.43% +0.43% $1171.38 52 COMEX gold $944.00 $6.50 +0.69% +0.92% $933.78 52 Currencies Euro/dlr $1.415 $0.000 +0.03% +0.33% Dlr/yen 94.57 0.78 +0.83% +0.33% (Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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