Gold futures slipped in Asia hours on Thursday, pressured by a somewhat stronger dollar, with investors waiting for data due out at the end of the week on the health of the Chinese economy. Gold for delivery in February declined $3.60 to $1,679.60 an ounce in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The small losses for gold Thursday coincided with a modest increase in the ICE dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies. The index traded at 79.832, inching up from 79.807 in late trading on Wednesday. In regular Wednesday trading in New York, futures for the precious metal eased by 70 cents to settle at $1,683.20 an ounce, falling back after reaching its highest level since Jan. 2 earlier in the week. Read: Gold slips, but demand prospects look good A variety of factors have influenced metal markets this week, including Germany's Bundesbank announcing it will repatriate some of its gold reserves. Edward Meir, metals analyst at INTL FCStone, said that markets will likely drift for the balance of the week “at least until some of the Chinese macro numbers slated for release this weekend provide the markets with more direction." According to RBC analysts, the market consensus for Chinese fourth-quarter economic growth is 7.8%. Around the wider metals complex, April platinum lost $12.50 to $1,681.60 an ounce, but remained above the gold price. Platinum prices settled with a premium over gold for the first time earlier in the week. The metal jumped nearly $32 on Tuesday on news Anglo American Platinum Ltd. would suspend operations at some of its mines. March palladium declined $5.30 to $721.15 an ounce. March silver declined $15 cents to $31.39 an ounce, while March copper traded flat at $3.60 per pound. Marketwatch
