Gold rose to its highest in more than a week on Thursday, supported by a slight retreat in the dollar and a pullback in global equities as demand for riskier assets cooled. Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,277.87 per ounce as of 12:22 p.m. EDT (1622 GMT). Prices hit their highest since April 16 at $1,282.38 during the session
US gold futures rose 0.1 percent to $1,279.90 an ounce. "Equity markets are coming off a bit, which should start getting volatility a little higher and the risk (element), elevated," said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities in Toronto, adding the move down in the US dollar was also helping gold prices. The dollar index eased after advancing to a near 2 year high earlier in the session.
A slide in Wall Street equities added to losses in global stock markets, which have been weighed by a surprise deterioration in German and South Korean economic data that brought back to the fore concerns of a global downturn. "Gold prices are expected to remain stagnant around these levels, any economic weakness will likely move it to around $1,288, but its well supported around $1,270-$1,272; gold needs some kind of catalysts to move in either direction," Melek said.
Bullion fell below the psychologically significant $1,300-per-ounce mark and other key support levels, including the 100-day and 50-day moving averages, mostly due to dollar strength and better-than-expected economic readings recently from both the United States and China.
Meanwhile, holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dipped 0.2 percent to its lowest since Oct. 19, at 747.87 tonnes on Wednesday. Investors now await US gross domestic product data due on Friday, with the economy forecast to have grown by 2.1 percent in the first quarter.
"Gold is awaiting bigger developments. We've got US GDP and that's expected to have a significant impact on the dollar," Capital Economics analyst Ross Strachan said. Spot gold may bounce towards resistance at $1,284, as it has found support at $1,264, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.
Among other metals, silver was nearly unchanged at $14.92 per ounce, while platinum gained 0.9 percent to $886. Palladium fell 0.4 percent to $1,411.21 per ounce.
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