London - Gold eased on Thursday after robust economic data fuelled speculation a US rate hike may come sooner rather than later and on cautious hopes for a resolution to the Greek debt crisis, though the euro's surge underpinned prices.
Traders are now focusing their attention on Friday's US non-farm payrolls data, a key barometer of the world's largest economy, for clues on the next direction of gold.
Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,183.00 an ounce at 09h32 GMT, while US gold futures for June delivery were down $2.20 an ounce at $1,182.70.
Gold is down nearly 2 percent this year in anticipation of the first US interest rate rise in nearly a decade. Rising rates lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.
The Fed has indicated that the timing of any rate hike is data-dependent.
“A lot of (gold's weakness) is pricing in expectations for a fairly positive non-farm payrolls reading tomorrow. All things being equal, it should have been another pretty solid month of gains,” Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said.
“For the moment, gold is still very much data-driven,” he added. “The ADP payrolls report (on Wednesday) was pretty solid, and we did see a move downward in gold on the back of that.”
Safe-haven support for gold from the Greek debt crisis also weakened on signs that Athens could be inching closer to a deal with its creditors.
Offsetting that, however, the euro rallied across the board as German Bund yields reached their highest in eight months, extending gains made after the head of the European Central Bank played down the impact of bond market volatility.
Demand for physical gold in the main Asian markets was lacklustre, with a tight price range and expectations of more declines in a seasonally quiet period for bullion keeping consumers away from gold jewellery, bars and coins.
“Gold continued its recent run of quiet Asian sessions today, dipping marginally as China emerged as early sellers but generally stuck within a $3 range,” precious metals house MKS said in a note.
Premiums in China, the top gold consumer in the first quarter, have barely moved in the past few weeks from $1.50-$2 an ounce to the global benchmark. In India, prices have been broadly on a par with global prices.
Silver was down 0.6 percent at $16.42 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.2 percent at $1,102 an ounce, and palladium was up 0.4 percent at $754.50 an ounce.
Reuters