*AlEqtisadiah from Riyadh
Gold fell yesterday, but trading above the 10-week low, which it had touched at the previous meeting, as the dollar rallied against the yen on signs of progress in the US-China trade dispute and strong economic data from the United States.
According to Reuters, by 05:40 GMT, spot gold fell 0.3 per cent to $ 1288.75 an ounce after hitting its lowest since January 25 at $ 1280.59 in the previous session.
The yellow metal has fallen about 0.2 per cent since the beginning of the week.
US gold futures fell nearly 0.1 per cent to $ 1293.70 an ounce.
Benjamin Lo, an analyst at Phillip Futures that is based in Singapore, said, "The market expected some positive in the data" jobs," so if you move in the opposite direction to expectations there may be some sharp fluctuations in the price of gold."
Gold yesterday surpassed its 100-day moving average of $ 1,282 an ounce for the first time since at least November, which is driven mainly by strong US data and improved risk appetite.
For other precious metals, Platinum fell 0.5% to reach $ 892.95, after rising to its highest level since mid-June 2018 at $ 901.49 an ounce in the previous session.
Platinum has risen nearly 5 per cent since the beginning of this week.
Palladium rose 0.4 percent to $ 1371.50 an ounce but was heading for a second week low.
Silver settled at $ 15.14 an ounce.
Silver fell to its lowest level since the end of December in the previous session.
The dollar hit a three-week high against the yen yesterday with support from optimism about a US-China trade agreement, although movements in foreign exchange markets are generally limited with investors seeing many news headlines but without the result of trade talks.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that progress is being made and an early conclusion of the negotiations is called for.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that an agreement could be announced in about four weeks but warned that it would be difficult to allow China to trade with the United States if unresolved issues remained unresolved.
The dollar rose to a three-week high of 111.8 yen to the dollar, while holding its position against most other currencies.
The yuan gained 0.2 percent to 6.7065.
But the dollar steadied against a basket of currencies, and most of the major currencies traded in tight ranges as the European session began.
The Euro rose slightly to $ 1.1228, and the single currency curbed gains after data released yesterday that is showing a drop in German industrial orders in February.
The pound fell yesterday on concerns about Britain's exit from the European Union as Prime Minister Teresa Mai sought further deferral of secession.
May wrote to the EU asking for a postponement of Britain's secession from the bloc to June 30, so that it may obtain the consent of members of the House of Commons to the exit agreement.
But France and the Netherlands have expressed concern over the plan, which exacerbates continuing concerns about an exit without an agreement that is leading the Sterling to drop to a low of $ 1.3011, down 0.5 percent from the start of trading.
It was not clear how long a deflation would affect sterling.
The British currency is likely to rise if the postponement of the suspension prompts members of the anti-EU House of Commons to back the agreement reached by May with the EU or led to the cancellation of the exit referendum in 2016.
Sterling was confined to a narrow range around $ 1.31 in most of March.
The Australian dollar was up 0.2 percent at $ 0.71245.
The Australian currency since the beginning of the week has been supported after having raised signs of progress in the US-China trade dispute with high-risk assets and commodity prices.
While the Turkish lira fell 1 percent to 5.65 against the US dollar.
