Spot gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,287.87 an ounce, as of 0410 GMT, after gaining 0.4 percent in the previous session.
• Markets were focused on an annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming starting Thursday, where Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi are set to deliver speeches on Friday, on the outlook for monetary policy and interest rates.
• "It's a bit lower with lack of catalysts and people trading sideways. It's going to be trading in a very tight range," said Richard Xu, a fund manager at China's biggest gold exchange-traded fund, HuaAn Gold.
"The market is pricing in the Federal Reserve's actions at the Jackson Hole meeting and people are expecting some kind of tightening going on in that space. So that's why gold is going to be under some kind of pressure."
"Gold has already traded higher compared to a month ago so it's already priced in some of the uncertainty with regards to geopolitical concerns and even U.S. fiscal policy, so we think there's not much upside unless something unexpected happens," Xu said.
• The dollar inched higher on Thursday, paring some of the losses it suffered after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested a shutdown of the government was possible and threatened to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Spot gold may test a resistance at $1,294 per ounce, a break above which could lead to a gain to the next resistance at $1,297, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.
• Among other precious metals, silver was nearly unchanged at $17.02 an ounce.
• A sustainable breach above $1,300 is within reach for gold, and prices can even surge to $1,400 in early next year, says one major bank.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s bullish outlook is supported by lower long-term U.S. interest rates, the bank’s global head of commodities research Francisco Blanch told Bloomberg this week.
Reference: Reuters, Kitco
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