Investing.com - Gold prices in Asia eyed data sets from Japan and China for direction on Thursday after posting overnight gains.
Gold futures for February on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were last quoted at $1,175.85 a troy ounce, up 0.49%.
Elsewhere in precious metals trading, silver futures for March delivery jumped 2.28% overnight to $17.193 a troy ounce, while copper futures for March delivery last traded weaker traded at $2.647 a pound.
In Japan, third quarter GDP is expected to show a 0.6% gain quarter-on-quarter and a 2.4% pace year-on-year. Later, Australia reports trade balance data for October with an A$800 million deficit seen. China should report its trade balance for November with a surplus of $46.30 billion seen and exports posting a decline of 5.0% and imports down 1.3%.
Overnight, gold prices edged higher on Wednesday, but gains looked likely to remain limited as expectations for an interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve next week weighed on the precious metal.
Gold remained under pressure ahead of an expected interest rate hike by the U.S. central bank at its Dec. 13-14 meeting with a stronger dollar also hitting sentiment as the precious metal is priced in greenbacks.
Data on Tuesday showing that U.S. factory orders rose at the fastest rate in almost one-and-a-half years in October added to signs that the manufacturing sector is recovering and fed into expectations for a rate hike.