Gold edged higher from a two-week low hit earlier on Tuesday after data showed US consumer confidence slipped in November, with investors eager for more details on the long-awaited trade agreement between the United States and China.
Spot gold was up 0.5% at $1,461.51 an ounce as of 1:45 p.m. ET (1845 GMT). US gold futures for December settled up 0.2% at $1,460.30.
US consumer confidence fell for a fourth straight month in November.
Gold earlier in the day touched its lowest level since Nov. 12 at $1,450.30, having posted losses in the previous four sessions.
"The only story here is the China-US (trade deal). Last few sessions, gold has been selling off on hopes for a US-China deal. Right now, gold is paused here and is in kind of a wait-and-see (mode)," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
The United States and China are close to agreement on the first phase of a trade deal, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, after top negotiators from the two countries spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues.
"The talk on the streets is that the phase one deal is going to be a non-event. People believe that there would be a deal but very little substance in it," said Michael Matousek, head trader at US Global Investors.
"The market is going to be wandering around aimlessly for another week or two until we get more information out of the Federal Reserve coming into December and the China trade deal."
However, despite optimism in the market about a conclusion to the protracted trade war between the world's two largest economies, analysts believe that gold is going to remain bullish in the longer term.
Speculators increased their bullish positions in COMEX gold and silver in the week to Nov. 19, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
"The reason why you are seeing CFTC positions increasing is because people are looking long-term and are worried about equities being too hot right now," Haberkorn said. "They are concerned about a large sell-off in equities with how high they have gone so fast."
Elsewhere, silver rose 1.1% to $17.09 per ounce.
Palladium gained 0.7% to $1,810.44, having earlier touched its highest since Nov. 4, while platinum climbed 1.3% to $908.70.
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