Gold found modest support in Asian on Thursday, arresting a big overnight fall and stabilising prices ahead of European trading.
Silver and palladium firmed a bit, with the advances coming despite further strengthening of the US dollar.
The resurgence in the dollar has led to dramatic sell-off in precious metals, which have pressured gold and silver to one-month lows this week.
A stronger dollar encourages the metals' hoards to cash in caches for currency.
"We saw selling back off a bit today waiting for Europe, but the dollar is still what's determining the price," a bullion dealer said.
The dollar rallied across the board and scaled one-month highs against the yen on Thursday amid growing speculation of US interest rate hike.
"The dollar is firming against the yen, the Euro and a lot of other currencies.
It looks like its recent bullishness is still intact and some stop-loss buying is getting triggered," said Thou Sasaki, chief foreign exchange strategist at J.P. Morgan Chase.
Before backtracking, the dollar rose above 109.20 yen, its highest level since March 16. It also firmed to around $1.1910 to the Euro, within half a percent of Wednesday's five-month highs.
Spot gold was at $400.50/$401.25 an ounce, compared with a late New York quote of $399.50 and the last London fix of $397.75.
Earlier in London, gold fell more than nine dollars an ounce as the dollar gained on the Euro.
In Tokyo gold futures, the benchmark February 2005 gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) was three-yen lower at 1,400 yen.
Spot silver was at $7.08/$7.10 an ounce, up eight cents.
Spot platinum was one dollar lower at $924.00/$929.00 an ounce.
Spot palladium was up $12 at $322.00/$327.00 an ounce.
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