Gold surges in Europe

Gold rose on Thursday, moving further away from a three-month low hit earlier this week, helped by uncertainty in US-China trade ties that dented demand for riskier assets.

Spot gold rose 0.5% to $1,470.68 per ounce at 11:25 a.m. EST (1625 GMT), having climbed to a high of $1,471.45. US gold futures also rose 0.6% to $1,471.50 per ounce.

"Gold is primarily reacting to technical trends and over the last week we have seen the price come down below the support level of $1,470 ... and now we're trying to break above that," said Jeffrey Christian, managing partner of CPM Group.

Gold prices fell to a more than 3-month low of $1,445.18 an ounce on Tuesday.

However, prices have risen since then as stock markets dipped, improving demand for bullion.

World stocks nudged down on Thursday as Chinese economic data slowed in October and Germany only narrowly avoided a recession in the third quarter, adding to worries about the global growth fallout from the US-China trade war.

"Gold should be in greater demand at least in the short term because the negotiations of a partial agreement in the trade dispute between the U.S and China appear to have stalled," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said in a note.

A Reuters poll of economists showed the US-China trade war was unlikely to reach a permanent truce over the coming year, and while concerns have eased over a US recession, an economic rebound is also not expected any time soon.

Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump said a trade deal with China was "close" but offered no details and warned he would raise tariffs "substantially" on Chinese goods without such an accord.

Also supporting safe-haven gold were worries about spiralling violence in Hong Kong as anti-government protesters paralysed parts of the city for a fourth day.

"The bulls now need to reclaim a few former support levels such as $1,480, $1,495 and ideally $1,515 before the technical outlook improves markedly. But first thing is first: they need to hold today's breakout above short-term resistance at $1,467ish," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst with Forex.com.

Meanwhile, holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, eased slightly to 896.77 tonnes on Wednesday.

Among other precious metals, palladium gained 1.4% to $1,733.28 per ounce. Silver rose 0.5% to $17.03 per ounce, while platinum was up 0.4% at $877.42 per ounce.

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