Gold was little changed on Tuesday, taking a breather a day after paring a 3% gain made last week on a rebound in the US dollar, while declines in global stock markets underpinned its allure as a safe-haven asset.
Tokyo's Nikkei share average fell 1.4% after hitting a six-month closing high the previous day, while the dollar edged down against a basket of currencies towards Monday's four-month low but held firm versus the euro.
If another sell-off hits US stocks later in the day and boosts the dollar's appeal to investors, as it did on Monday, gold could test $900 because of its failure to rise decisively above $US920 in the past weeks, analysts said.
"The market doesn't have enough confidence to break this resistance" at the $US918 to $US920 level that has been capping gold since late April, said Louis Lok, a dealer at Bank of China in Hong Kong.
"Now gold could go under $US900," he said.
Spot gold was at $US913.90 an ounce in Asian trade, up 0.1% from New York's notional close of $US912.60.
On Monday it fell about 0.4% as the US dollar rebounded from a four-month low against a basket of currencies, making dollar-priced bullion pricier for non-US investors.
"The market has lost appetite for safe-haven buying of gold recently because of the fact that the investment market situation has stabilised ... The (negative) correlation with the US dollar has been stronger than before," said Bank of China's Lok.
US gold futures for June delivery edged up 0.1% to $US914.2 per ounce after settling down $US1.40 on Monday on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, said holdings stood at 1,104.09 tonnes as of May 11, unchanged from the previous business day.
