LONDON: Gold held steady on Tuesday after touching five-month highs the previous session, bolstered by the dollar softening versus the yen, North Korea tensions and the French presidential election.
US Vice President Mike Pence reassured Japan of American commitment to reining in North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions on Tuesday, after warning that US strikes in Syria and Afghanistan showed the strength of its resolve.
The dollar dipped fractionally versus the yen, with worries that US currency manipulation complaints could touch Japan, overshadowing comments by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that a strong dollar was positive in the long term.
A weaker dollar makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for non-US investors. The dollar also lost ground versus the sterling on Tuesday after British Prime Minister Theresa May called for an early election on June 8.
"Short-term risk is skewed to the downside but underlying support is there with the focus on political uncertainties. We see the yen continuing to strengthen, and a strong yen and strong gold have gone hand in hand since November," Saxo Bank's head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen said.
"Also expectations about the dollar are up for revision, the strong dollar story is fading. (US President Donald) Trump is talking it down and we're seeing weakness creep into US data, changing the perception of how much rates have to rise."
Spot gold  was flat at $1,284.53 per ounce by 1258 GMT, after climbing to $1,295.42 in the prior session, its highest since Nov. 9.
US gold futures  dipped 0.4 percent to $1,286.70.
Investors remain nervous ahead of the first round of France's presidential election this Sunday, even though an opinion poll put centrist Emmanuel Macron first, just ahead of far-right, anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen.
"Gold looks fairly attractive at the current juncture as a safe haven bet with geopolitical tensions on the rise and concerns ahead of French elections," Sugandha Sachdeva, head of metals, energy & currency research at Religare Securities, said, adding however that gold was still vulnerable to profit taking.
Spot gold may break a support at $1,281 per ounce and fall to the next support at $1,265, following its failure to break a trendline falling from the July 11, 2016 high of $1,374.71, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.
Spot silver  edged down 0.1 percent to $18.38 per ounce, after hitting over a five-month high of $18.649 in the prior session.
Platinum rose 0.1 percent to $982.25 per ounce, while palladium rose 0.5 percent to $792.40.
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