Comex gold futures settled with slight gains and silver settled weaker on Thursday after dealers took profits on hop to fresh 6-1/2-month highs, traders said.
Gold for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division tacked on 80 cents to end at $425.60 an ounce, within a range of $423 to $427.50 which was its priciest since April.
"There was trade and dealer buying over the last couple of days, and I think what's happened today was more quiet physical trade with spot prices on either side of unchanged," James Quinn, AG Edwards & Sons commodity commentator, said.
"You might have had some profit-taking but you didn't have the kind of volume to show the funds were in here in any big way." The consolidation in precious metals mirrored the Europe's gyrations around eight-month highs versus the dollar, traders said.
Dollar weakness often raises demand for dollar-denominated metals by making them cheaper in non-US currencies. The euro held at about $1.2626 in the afternoon, not far from the session peak at $1.2651.
The dollar's recent breakdown follows sluggish economic data, and it had a muted reaction to the latest snapshot of the US labour market on Thursday. US jobless claims fell by 25,000 to 329,000 from a revised 354,000 the previous week, against expectations for a fall of 7,000.
In crude, oil firmed 9 cents to touch $54.50 a barrel on fears over winter heating oil supply.
"With the dollar now set in a downtrend and oil seeing strong support again on supply and US inventor concerns, it looks as if gold will be extending its gains over the coming sessions," James Moore at thebulliondesk.com said in a report.
Analysts peg resistance in gold at $427 and then at the year's peak of $433, a 15-year high, with support at $422 and then at $420.
Funds are holding big net long positions in gold and silver, as shown by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of Traders data, and it remains unclear if the will extend that exposure or increasingly pare back longs, traders said.
Open interest in Comex gold rose 5,884 to 311,109 contracts as of October 20. Spot gold last traded at $423.85/4.60, below 6-1/2-month high at $426, but up from Wednesday's New York close at $423.20/3.90.
The London afternoon fix was at $422.50. Comex December silver fell 4.2 cents to $7.31 an ounce, down from $7.42, which marked its priciest since April, but above the day's low of $7.195.
Spot hit $7.27/7.30, up from $7.14/17 previously.
The fix was at $7.325, a six-month peak.
Nymex January platinum rose $3.70 to $851.80 an ounce. Spot platinum was at $846.00/851.00.
December palladium gained $1.25 to $216.90 an ounce. Spot palladium, fetched $212.00/217.00.