Gold eased slightly on Thursday after three days of gains as the U.S. dollar rose and the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged, maintaining the parameters of its 1.74 trillion euro ($1.95 trillion) asset buying scheme.
"Sales rose to 5.47 (million) during the month, that's 3.2 percent higher than a month ago and in contrast to the most recent reading on pending home sales," said Royce Mendes, director and senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets in Toronto. "The divergence suggests that the momentum higher could be short lived."
The market also eyed Wednesday night's final U.S. presidential debate, which was judged not to have improved Donald Trump's election hopes and which could potentially weigh on gold. A win for Democrat Hillary Clinton is now clearly predicted by polls and is seen as easing the way for an interest rate hike.
Meanwhile, India's overseas purchases of gold likely hit a nine-month high in October, industry officials told Reuters, while Swiss gold exports to China hit their highest since January last month, Swiss customs data showed.
"What is more, Swiss gold exports to India climbed to their highest level since January, which points to demand recovering there," Commerzbank said in a note.
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