* Canadian dollar at C$1.2463 or 80.24 U.S. cents * Bond prices mixed across the maturity curve TORONTO, June 4 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as investors awaited the two countries' Friday employment reports for May and oil prices held steady the day before an OPEC meeting. With few domestic drivers on Thursday, market participants were focused on overseas action, where the euro surged and the benchmark for European borrowing costs, the 10-year German Bund yield, recorded their biggest two-day gain since 1998. The moves came after a surprise return to inflation in the eurozone and after Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, indicated it would not add more stimulus because of rising yields. * At 8:56 a.m. EDT (1256 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at C$1.2463 to the greenback, or 80.24 U.S. cents, not far from the Bank of Canada's official close of C$1.2453, or 80.30 U.S. cents on Wednesday. * The currency's strongest level of the session was C$1.2437, while its weakest was C$1.2492. * In the United States, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week fell by 8,000, slightly more than expected, to a seasonally adjusted 276,000, pointing to labor market resilience despite only moderate economic growth. * Canada's Ivey PMI data for May is due at 10:00 a.m. EDT . * U.S. crude prices were down 0.52 percent at $59.33, while Brent crude lost 0.45 percent to $63.51. A weaker greenback was offsetting worries over a global supply glut ahead of Friday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC is widely expected to maintain a production target of 30 million barrels per day, despite calls from some quarters to cut supplies in order to support prices. * The Canadian dollar, which was weaker than many of its key currency counterparts, is expected to trade between C$1.2370 and C$1.2500 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, according to National Bank Financial. * Canadian government bond prices were mixed across the maturity curve, with the longer-term bonds rising. The two-year was up 4 Canadian cents to yield 0.587 percent, while the benchmark 10-year rose 16 Canadian cents to yield 1.762 percent. * The Canada-U.S. two-year bond spread was -8.1 basis points, while the 10-year spread was -57.8 basis points. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)