Gold edges back from one-week high after strong US data

Gold pulled back from a one-week high on Thursday after the dollar rebounded following strong US retail sales data. US retail sales increased more than expected in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start.
"We have not seen this strong pace of strength for the US retail sales data since 2012," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK. Spot gold had edged down 0.2 percent to $1,253.21 an ounce by 1402 GMT after earlier touching its highest since December 7 at $1,259.11.
US gold futures rose 0.6 percent to $1,255.60. The dollar crept higher, making dollar-denominated bullion more expensive for buyers using other currencies, bouncing after the greenback earlier slipped to a fresh one-week low.
The dollar index had been under pressure after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday had maintained its outlook of three rate increases in 2018. The US economic data was released after both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept rates unchanged.
While uncertainty around US tax reform may support gold, there were also risks bullion could revisit the bottom of its range close to $1,200, said Jonathan Butler, commodities analyst at Mitsubishi in London. "If US stock markets continue to fly, if we continue to see flows into some of the more unconventional assets including crypto currencies, then that would erode some of the investor interest in gold as a safe haven and alternative asset."
Platinum failed to react much to news that South African precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater agreed to buy Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer. "It makes for a good match, but it doesn't resolve oversupply of the PGM (platinum group metals) industry," said Nedbank precious metals analyst Leon Esterhuizen.
Platinum dipped 0.4 percent to $881.30 an ounce. On Tuesday, it touched its lowest since February, 2016. Palladium shed 0.1 percent to $1,016 an ounce. Silver fell 1.2 percent to $15.87 an ounce, after hitting a five-month low of $15.59 in the previous session.