Updates with EMEA mid-session trading

By Rahul Paswan and Sarah Qureshi

March 20 (Reuters) - Gold prices retreated from a new record high on Thursday as investors booked profits after the latest leg of a rally that has seen the metal gain almost 16% this year driven by safe-haven demand and expectations of lower interest rates.

Spot gold XAU= was down 0.4% on the day at $3,036.54 an ounce at 1234 GMT, having risen as far as $3,057.21 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 rose 0.1% to $3,044.70.

"There is a bit of profit-taking after such stellar moves in the past week," Nitesh Shah, commodities strategist at WisdomTree said.

The potential for further progress on ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine is also adding pressure, he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has intervened in the three-year-long war, holding separate talks with Russia and Ukraine about a partial ceasefire.

The U.S. dollar DXY was up 0.5%, making bullion more expensive for foreign buyers. USD/

Trump's tariffs, meanwhile, are widely seen as inflationary and have prompted gold to notch 16 record highs so far this year, four of them above $3,000.

The U.S. central bank left its key interest rate unchanged on Wednesday but the Federal Reserve is still expected to deliver rate cuts by the end of this year. Traders are pricing in 66 basis points of easing this year, at least two rate reductions of 25 bps each, with a cut in July fully priced in, LSEG data showed. FEDWATCH

Gold acts as a hedge against uncertainty and tends to do well in a low-interest rate environment.

"The stage seems set for gold to continue higher, but the market may run out of near-term catalysts as traders price in the new post-FOMC consensus," said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.

"Investor demand for gold has surged in recent months on the uncertain economic and geopolitical backdrop... If the recent growth in demand evaporates, it would expose the market to downside risk," ANZ said in a Thursday note.

Spot silver XAG= fell 1.4% to $33.33 an ounce, platinum XPT= was 0.5% lower at $988.45 while palladium XPD= dropped 1.3% to $943.

"Gold remains firmly bullish with the next resistance at the psychological $3,100 level... weakness below $3,030 may trigger a decline lower," said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM.

(Reporting by Rahul Paswan, Anjana Anil and Sarah Qureshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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