Gold Market Update - Gold steady at lower levels around $1,360

Gold was steady in Friday afternoon trading despite the weak dollar while markets digested a slew of economic data amid lacklustre investment demand.

Spot gold was last at $1,364.65/1,365.45 per ounce, down $11.29 from the previous session and near a fresh low of $1,360. It fell through support at $1,364. Next support is pegged at $1,352, $1,339.

In a busy day for economic data, US December's retail sales and CPI figures were released. Retail sales rose 0.6 percent but came in lower than a forecast of 0.8 percent and was also below November's month-on-month rise of 0.8 percent.

Core retail sales, meanwhile, rose 0.5 percent versus a forecast of 0.7 percent. November saw a rise of 0.8 percent.

The trend in retail sales has been to the upside since June, although November's and now December's data have dipped, FastMarkets analyst William Adams notes.

This morning, EU CPI was unchanged as expected while in the US CPI exceeded expectations with a rise.

CPI saw a slight uptick to 0.5 percent compared with a forecast of 0.4 percent, also a larger increase from November's 0.1 percent rise. Core CPI was in line with expectations at 0.1 percent, the same as the previous month.

The euro held up against the dollar - it was last at 1.3363 but was near an early afternoon low of 1.3320.

Equities were down in the afternoon - the FTSE100, DAX and CAC40 were down 1.1 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent respectively. Dow Jones futures were down 0.2 percent ahead of the New York open.

In other precious metals, silver followed gold down and was last at $28.57/28.62 per ounce, down 22 cents.

Platinum was at $1,806/1,811 per ounce, up $2. Sister metal palladium was down $15.50 or 1.9 percent and was last at $793/798.

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