Investing.com - Gold prices erased recent gains stemming from expectations for U.S. monetary policy to stay loose and fell on Friday after U.S. wholesale pricing data beat market expectations
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery traded at $1,318.60 a troy ounce during U.S. trading, down 0.14%, up from a session low of $1,314.40 and off a high of $1,324.20.
The June contract settled up 1.12% at $1,320.50 on Thursday.
Futures were likely to find support at $1,295.90 a troy ounce, Monday's low, and resistance at $1,324.90, Thursday's high.
Gold prices shot up this week after language out of the Federal Reserve suggested that interest rates will remain low for some time due to soft inflation rates and a slack labor market.
On Friday, prices got a shot in the arm after U.S. wholesale prices came in stronger than expected for March.
Official data released earlier showed that the U.S. producer price index rose 0.5% in March, exceeding expectations for a 0.1% gain, after a 0.1% fall the previous month.
Core producer price inflation, which is stripped of volatile food, energy and trade items, rose 0.6% in March, beating expectations for a 0.2% rise after a 0.2% decline in February.
Elsewhere, the preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index came to 82.6 in April, beating expectations for a 81.0 reading.
Still, growing market consensus that the Federal Reserve is nowhere close to tightening policy cushioned gold's losses.
Meanwhile, silver for May delivery was down 0.66% at US$19.958 a troy ounce, while copper futures for May delivery were down 0.11% at US$3.042 a pound.