MELBOURNE, March 24 (Reuters) - Spot gold steadied on Thursday but was still facing its biggest weekly loss since early November after slipping around 2 percent in the previous session as hawkish comments by Federal Reserve officials fed a dollar recovery.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold XAU= edged up by 0.2 percent to $1,222.56 an ounce by 2342 GMT. Gold on Wednesday fell as low as 1,215 an ounce, its weakest since Feb. 26 and was on track for a 2.6 percent weekly loss ahead of the Easter holiday break which starts on Friday.
* U.S. gold GCcv1 slipped 0.2 percent to $1,222.20.
* Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said the central bank should consider another hike as early as next month if the U.S. economy continues to improve, while Chicago Fed President Charles Evans also said he expects two more rate increases this year.
* New U.S. single-family home sales rebounded modestly in February as a surge in the West offset sharp declines in other regions, pointing to a gradually improving housing sector amid a dearth of properties available on the market. Oil prices tumbled 4 percent on Wednesday, with U.S crude settling below the key $40 per barrel mark after a sixth straight week of record highs in stockpiles that traders warned could cut short the market's two-month long rally. O/R
* Newcrest Mining NCM.AX said it has partially hedged future gold production at its Telfer gold mine in Western Australia and that it may hedge more in the future. NCM.AX
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MARKET NEWS
* Global equity markets fell and the dollar advanced on Wednesday as hawkish comments by Federal Reserve officials put investors on guard for the possibility of more U.S. interest rate hikes this year than currently anticipated. MKTS/GLOB
DATA AHEAD (GMT)
0700 Germany GfK consumer sentiment Apr
0700 Germany Import prices Feb
0745 France Business climate Mar
1230 U.S. Durable goods orders Feb
1230 U.S. Weekly jobless claims