Higher rates could attract more global funds to short-term US assets. That would boost the dollar, making dollar-priced gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Some dealers said gold would trade in a range of $424 to $426, while waiting for Greenspan's further testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services later on Thursday.
"It's so lethargic. Gold is not doing anything at all today," said one dealer in Singapore, a centre for bullion trading in Southeast Asia. "But my feeling is that gold will push higher because it has gone up to the $425 level again.
I am hoping it will break through the $428" level, he said. In the currency market, the euro was at $1.3045, against $1.3030 in late US trade. Platinum fell to a low of $851 an ounce before rebounding slightly to $854/859, little changed from late New York levels.
Sister metal palladium was at $180/185 an ounce, compared with $178/183 in the US market. Weakness in Tokyo platinum futures was pressuring the spot price, which has lost around 3 percent of its value since hitting a two-month high of $882 in February.
Dealers attributed the declines in Tokyo to a report issued this week by precious metals refiner Johnson Matthey, which forecast a possible surplus in supply in 2005.
But Yukuji Sonoda, a precious metals analyst at Daiichi Commodities in Tokyo, said platinum would hold above $850, thanks to demand from jewellery makers in China, Japan and the US
"This is a good time to buy platinum," said Sonoda, who expects the metal to eventually rebound to $860-$870. Prospects for lower platinum output in South Africa would support the metal, which is used mainly in jewellery and to clean auto exhaust emissions, said Sonoda.
Angloplat, the world's top platinum producer, has cut its 2006 production target for the second time in just over a year to 2.7-2.8 million ounces, from 2.9 million. It pegged 2005 output at 2.6 million ounces.
Spot silver was at $7.23/7.25 an ounce, against $7.24/7.27 late in New York.
In Tokyo, the benchmark December gold futures contract rose one yen per gram to 1,442 yen. On Hong Kong's Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange, teal gold (37.5 gram ingot) was quoted at HK $3,945, compared with an opening of HK $3,944.