Gold dipped on Thursday as the dollar gained versus the euro after the European Central Bank said it would cut back its bond purchases but hedged the move by also extending the lifespan of its bond-buying programme. The ECB's decision to cut back bond purchases was widely expected and factored into gold prices and the dollar, with the move to extend the bond-buying programme's lifespan taking the wind out of the euro's rally versus the dollar.
European stock markets gained following the ECB decision as investors started to price out future rate increases, moving back into assets perceived as risky, like stocks, and away from safe haven gold and bonds. A strong dollar makes dollar-priced gold costlier for non-US investors.
"Stocks are at extremely high levels in the US but I think Europe is going to start playing catch up. I'm bearish on gold while we remain below $1,300," said Fawad Razaqzada analyst at FOREX.com. Spot gold dipped 0.1 percent to $1,275.40 an ounce at 1355 GMT. US gold futures for December delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,276.60.
Also weighing on gold and boosting the dollar was fresh speculation that the next Federal Reserve chair could be a policy hawk following reports that current Fed chair Janet Yellen is out of the race. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump polled Republicans on whether they would prefer Stanford University economist John Taylor or current Fed Governor Jerome Powell for the job, and more senators preferred Taylor.
"A hawkish governor like Taylor could lead to a rise in bond yields and be negative for the gold price," said John Sharma, an economist with National Australia Bank. Gold is likely to flatline for another year in 2018 as rising US interest rates clip momentum, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, while silver forecasts were cut again after the metal lagged forecasts in the third quarter.
In other precious metals, silver rose 0.2 percent to $16.94 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.2 percent to $917.99 an ounce, while palladium climbed 0.9 percent to $969.10. "On current levels, a lot of bad news is priced into platinum while palladium still looks due for a correction with another dent in global car sales looming," said Julius Baer in a note.