Gold rose on Wednesday after soft retail sales pointed to some loss of momentum in the US economy, reducing fears among bullion investors that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates sooner than expected. "We saw a move upwards after the retail sales data, which is now correcting," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said. "We don't see any data coming up, or any other news, which is really going to shake gold out of its trading band."
Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,312.60 an ounce by 2:35 pm EDT (1835 GMT). US COMEX gold futures for December delivery settled up $3.90 at $1,314.50, with trading volume about 40 percent below the 30-day average. Among other precious metals, silver was down 0.2 percent at $19.81 an ounce. Platinum eased 0.1 percent to $1,460.80 an ounce, while palladium gained 0.5 percent to $877.20 an ounce.