Spot gold was bid at $1,078.90 an ounce at 1504 GMT, against $1,086.75 late in New York on Thursday. In that session it hit a near three-month low of $1,073.75. "At the moment gold is lower because the dollar is strengthening," said Credit Suisse head of commodity research Tobias Merath. He added, however, that the data posed further risks for gold than its effect on the currency markets.
"For gold, positive data is not helpful because the main risk for gold is from rising real interest rates," he said. "Real interest rates are the opportunity cost for gold, because it doesn't give any yield." On the physical side, Indian gold demand continued to pick up on Friday as traders took advantage of easing prices to build stocks to meet upcoming wedding demand.
Also in Asia, gold bars were offered at the highest premiums in more than a year as demand from China gained pace ahead of the Lunar New Year, dealers said. Holdings of the world's largest exchange-traded fund, New York's SPDR Gold Trust, were unchanged for a seventh straight session on Thursday, the trust's data showed. Overall its holdings are down 21.7 tonnes or 1.9 percent so far this year. In the same period of 2009, they rose 52.65 tonnes or 6.7 percent.
Gold is now looking vulnerable, according to analysts who study past price moves to determine future trade. "The close below the 100-day (moving average) at $1,089 is a first since July 2009 and increases the odds for a deeper probe of $1,074/1,067 support - the December lows and ten-month trendline - where we would be looking for basing signs," said technical analysts at Barclays Capital.
Among other precious metals, silver was at $16.07 an ounce versus $16.20. Platinum was at $1,507 an ounce versus $1,508, and paalladium at $417 versus $418.50. Buying of the platinum group metals to back new US exchange-traded funds tailed off at the beginning of this week, data from ETF Securities, which operates the funds, showed.