Gold rises in Europe

Gold edged higher on Thursday as a softer tone to the dollar helped to support prices, though continued outflows from bullion-backed funds showed investor sentiment remained weak as other assets like stocks rose. A sell-off since October 31 has sent gold sliding below the key technical level of $1,180 an ounce to a 4-1/2-year low of $1,131.85. It has since recovered modestly on short-covering, and demand for physical metal from price-sensitive buyers.
Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,161.62 by 1540 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery were up $1.90 an ounce at $1,161.00. The dollar was down 0.2 percent against the euro on Thursday. The US unit hit session lows after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said any premature tightening in America's monetary policy could hurt the economic recovery.
A run of relatively firm data had raised expectations that US rates will rise sooner rather than later, pressuring non-yielding gold. That has already largely been priced into the metal, analysts said. "The interest rate (expectations) are being pushed further and further back - our economists are now talking about September or October next year," Citi analyst David Wilson said.
"Unless we see dramatically better data, or the US dollar dramatically surges, I think we'll stay in this range for the time being." Holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, fell 1.8 tonnes to 722.67 tonnes on Wednesday, the seventh straight day of declines. Some support was offered by buying of physical gold in China overnight, dealers said.
However, the World Gold Council reported on Thursday that Chinese demand fell heavily in the third quarter, with jewellery demand down 39 percent and bar and coin buying 30 percent lower. That helped knock global demand 2 percent lower. Silver was flat at $15.62 an ounce, while spot platinum was down 0.3 percent at $1,194.50 an ounce and spot palladium was down 0.3 percent at $768.75 an ounce. Data from major producer South Africa showed platinum group metals output down 17.6 percent in October.