Gold jumped 1 percent on Tuesday following a two-day decline, as Asian stocks slid on weak oil prices and mixed views on the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost over 1 percent, while Tokyo's Nikkei dropped 2.4 percent to an eight-week closing low. Spot gold rose to a session-high of $1,227.60 an ounce before paring some gains to trade up 0.9 percent at $1,225.35 by 0644 GMT. It had dropped 1.4 percent in the past two sessions.
"We are getting mixed data out of the US and somewhat-contradictory comments from the Fed. That is creating some uncertainty for gold," said a Singapore-based trader, adding that the metal was seeing some technical support near its 50-day moving average near $1,215 an ounce. Gold had posted its biggest quarterly rise in nearly 30 years in the March quarter, rallying 16 percent as expectations faded that the Fed would move to normalise interest rates due to concerns over the global economy.