Gold held steady on Thursday as opposition within Britain’s Conservative Party to a draft EU exit deal hit sterling and lifted the dollar, making bullion less attractive for holders of other currencies.
Spot gold, which rose 1 percent in the previous session, was little changed at $1,211.19 per ounce at 1350 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were up 0.1 percent at $1,211.60 per ounce.
Some safe haven demand flowed into gold, a traditional store of value during times of political and economic uncertainty, as stock markets declined.
“There hasn’t been any big geopolitical crisis… it is still a relatively mild kind of environment and from this point of view, you are better off in the U.S. dollar,” SP Angel analyst Sergey Raevskiy said.
Just over 12 hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May said that her top ministers had agreed to the draft deal, Brexit Minister Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Minister Esther McVey quit, saying they could not support it.
“Gold may be seeing some limited safe-haven buying interest from this matter. However, the situation is not a serious geopolitical factor for the world marketplace,” Kitco Metals senior analyst Jim Wyckoff said in a note.
The dollar has emerged as a dominant safe haven asset this year, denting appeal for gold, which has fallen 11 percent from an April peak, especially as the U.S.-China trade tussle played out against a backdrop of rising U.S. interest rates.
U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in nine months in October amid gains in the cost of gasoline and rents, pointing to steadily rising inflation that will likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise rates again next month.
In the latest developments surrounding the ongoing trade dispute, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Argentina this month.
“If prices manage to remain above $1,210 there will be space for further recoveries, while another fall below the psychological threshold of $1,200 would represent a negative signal,” ActivTrades chief analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa said.
Also indicative of improved appetite for gold, holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, remained near their highest level in more than two months, while central banks have also been gradually increasing their reserves of the metal, analysts said.
Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.1 percent at $14.14 per ounce. The metal fell to $13.85 in the previous session, a level last seen on Jan. 21, 2016.
Platinum fell 0.7 percent to $828.74 an ounce, while palladium was 0.2 percent higher at $1,126.00 per ounce.
