Gold was up slightly as investors waited for the result of the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve.
Speculation has been growing that the Fed will signal that a rate hike is coming closer.
According to Commerzbank, gold would probably drift lower if that is the case but the German broker also points out that China has started to import the metal again.
Chinese statistics suggest gold imports totalled around 413 tons in the first half of 2016, 12% up on this time last year.
Unfortunately, Commerzbank points out that statistics from Thomson Reuters GFMS tell a different story with a 20% dip year-on-year in the first half in China and a 22% fall to 715 tons globally in physical demand.
The broker does point put that GFMS excludes exchange traded funds from these numbers and if ETFs are included worldwide demand rose by 7% to 947 tons.
Investment demand has been a key influence in the rise in the gold price this year with inflows at record levels, though Commerzbank adds that interest has dropped off recently.
Even so, GFMS upped its forecast for the gold price this year to US$1,279 from US$1,184 and was generally bullish.
Shortly after US trading got underway, spot gold was US$8 higher at US$1,328 per oz. Silver was just about hanging onto US$20 and platinum jumped US$26 to US$1,117.
