Investing.com -- Gold prices were drifting sideways into the weekend on Friday after brighter-than-expected surveys the U.S. offset weaker ones from Japan and Europe and partly allayed ongoing fears about the U.S.-China trade dispute.
By 11:00 AM ET (1600 GMT), gold futures for delivery on the Comex exchange were at $1,465.65 a troy ounce, up 0.1% from late Friday but some $12 off their intraday high before the U.S. data.
Spot gold was at $1,465.62, also up 0.1%.
City Index Matt Simpson said that that “as long as 1480 holds as resistance and trade headlines remain favorable, the path of least resistance points lower for gold.”
The trade headlines on Friday were again mixed, with President Donald Trump pushing back against Chinese requests for a tariff roll-back as part of any interim trade deal, although both Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping both talked up the prospects of a truce.
Silver futures edged back down below $17, while platinum futures fell 2.5% to $894.90 an ounce.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to its highest in three months, driven by a sharp upturn in expectations. That offset concerns raised by another increase in initial jobless claims last week and came as a reminder of the support to consumption from a labor market that’s still running with a jobless rate at multi-decade lows.
Earlier, the composite U.S. purchasing manager index, compiled by IHS Markit, rose to its highest since August, with both the manufacturing and services indices coming in higher than expected.
However, the analogous ‘flash’ PMI for the euro zone had fallen slightly to 50.3, defying hopes for a modest rebound and showing an economy still close to stalling. The U.K. manufacturing and services PMIs meanwhile showed the British economy contracting at its fastest rate in over three years, under the combined uncertainties of Brexit and the upcoming general election in December.
The flash PMI from Japan had also shown the manufacturing sector still contracting.
Despite the ongoing weakness of the eurozone data, there was little sign of fresh action in the near term from the European Central Bank in new president Christine Lagarde’s first keynote speech. Although Lagarde indicated monetary policy would stay accommodative, she also stepped up calls on governments to do more to support activity with fiscal and structural economic policy.