FUNDAMENTALS

- Gold was little changed at $1,634.89 an ounce by 0039 GMT, after falling to $1,632.34 on Thursday, its weakest since early January.

- Worries over appetite for the metal also dragged. Global gold demand fell last year for the first time since 2009 as jewellery buying abated in the key Indian and Chinese markets, and as US and European coin and bar investment dropped, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.

- US gold was also little changed at $1,635.40 an ounce.

- The euro zone slipped deeper than expected into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank at the end of a wretched year for the region.