Mubasher: Gold prices inched up on Friday, rebounding from its largest daily drop in two weeks during the preceding session, helped by the fall in the US dollar, Reuters reported.

By 8:23 am GMT, spot gold ticked up 0.03% to $1,292.87 per ounce, after dropping to a one-week trough in the previous session, while US gold futures rose 0.23% to $1,296.30 per ounce.

The precious metal fell more than 1% in the prior session after data showed that the weekly jobless claims hit their lowest bottom in nearly half a century, as producer prices rose last March to their highest level in five months.

Gold prices are on course to post their first gain in three weeks, having increased 0.2% so far this week owing to dovish signals from central banks and concerns about global growth.

The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) maintained their dovish stance, owing to a slowdown in the world economy, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this week slashed its global growth outlook for this year to a decade-low.

The US dollar, giving away most of the ground gained made in the last session, while it was on track to record its first fall in four weeks.

At 8:21 am GMT, the US dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.21% to 96.9760.

“Market is holding tight ahead of the corporate earnings to know whether the economic conditions slowed in the first quarter and did it affect the corporate structure,” Phillip Futures analyst Benjamin Lu was quoted by Reuters.

If earnings came stronger, the likely outcome would be more appetite for riskier assets, which in turn would curb the yellow metal’s appeal.

Asian shares also fell ahead of the US corporate earnings season as investor anxiety over the global growth outlook muted the impact of some reassuring US economic data.