Gold carved out fresh highs for the year in Europe on Friday - in both dollar and euro terms - as the dollar sagged again following further widening of the US trade deficit. Gold peaked at $446.70 a troy ounce, its highest since early December. Spot prices ended European trade at $445.95/446.70 by 1615 GMT, up from late New York's $442.00/442.75 on Thursday. Silver rose to $7.53/7.56 from $7.48/7.51.
"It has done not too badly today and if you look at the price in euro terms, that has also gone up quite nicely," John Reade, precious metals analyst with UBS Investment Bank, said.
Gold denominated in euros reached 331.79 an ounce, its strongest since mid-December. Analysts have previously said that gold needs to break above 350 euros - a hurdle it has failed to cross for 3-1/2 years - to become a true bull market.
The dollar saw volatile trade after the release of US trade data at 1330 GMT, weakening sharply before recovering almost as quickly, only to subsequently stumble again.
The euro was last at $1.3467.
US trade figures for January showed the country's trade gap widening to $58.3 billion, bigger than the expected $56.5 billion and December's downwardly-revised $55.7 billion.
A weaker US currency makes dollar-priced gold a cheaper buy for non-US investors.
"We have been all over the place this afternoon in the aftermath of the data," one trader said.
"Nobody really knew what to do when the numbers came out. Gold has been following the dollar again."
Gold would now target $450 an ounce, traders said, before honing in on a 16-1/2 year high of $456.75 scored last December.
"It's closing in on those peaks...I still think gold would be a lot higher if is wasn't for the IMF which is keeping some people out of the market," Reade said.
He was referring to plans by the International Monetary Fund - the world's third biggest holder of gold with more than 100 million ounces - to look at ways to use some reserves to help alleviate Third World Debt. It is due to report back next month.
Spot platinum was marginally firmer at $867.00/870.00 from $866.50/871.50 previously, while palladium fell to $199.00/204.00 from $198.50/203.50.
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