Tokyo gold futures were locked in a tight range on Thursday with falls in oil prices blocking the topside, while silver and palladium jumped in thin trading on speculative buying given brighter technical trends.
Key June Tokyo Commodity Exchange gold drifted down to a session low of 2,358 yen a gram after edging up slightly in trade, but it was mostly rangebound with no fresh trading factors.
"The short-term trend for gold is bearish as there is very little reason to take fresh positions from here," said Shoji Sugata, assistant manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures and Securities Ltd.
"This is typical trading in summer when many people in the market are on holiday. We'll see a clearer trend when players return," Sugata said.
June TOCOM gold was at 2,365 yen, up 2 yen from Wednesday's close of 2,263 yen.
Cash gold posted slight gains on Thursday after the dollar fell on economic data that reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve would hold interest rates steady.
Gold was at $629.00/629.75 an ounce, up from $627.00/627.80 late in New York on Wednesday when it gained more than $3 an ounce.
July US consumer inflation figures strengthened the notion the Fed would not need to resume raising interest rates at its September meeting.
The core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, came in below forecasts. But gold was capped given this week's falls in oil prices.
US crude oil futures fell to nearly an eight-week low on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth straight session towards $71 as a drop in US oil stocks was in line with forecasts.
Falls in oil prices tend to reduce demand for gold as inflation concerns recede.
Key June TOCOM silver jumped to a one-week high and key palladium rose to the highest level since June 8 as speculative buying intensified based on brighter technical trends following this week's rises.
One Tokyo-based trader said Japanese buyers were detected buying cash palladium in the week. June TOCOM silver was up about 1 percent from at 455.7 yen per 10 grams from Wednesday.
Key TOCOM palladium was up about 4 percent at 1,258 yen a gram from the previous close.