LONDON — Gold rose on Wednesday as the dollar moved lower, after the previous session’s price drop, but was still vulnerable to further losses as strong US data could fuel expectation the Federal Reserve will soon scale back stimulus. With Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday in the US approaching, market activity could slow down and only pick up next week, traders said. But ahead of that, the market will watch a flurry of US data, including the October durable goods report, weekly jobless claims, the Chicago purchasing managers index (PMI) and final Michigan sentiment survey for November. "I wouldn’t expect much happening with Thanksgiving tomorrow ... although if the data today comes in positive there is always the question whether the Fed could move to announce tapering in December or January," Société Générale analyst Robin Bhar said. Spot gold was up 0.8% to $1,252.14 an ounce by 10.53am GMT. It lost nearly 1% in the previous session after strong US housing data. US gold futures were up 0.9% to $1,252.10 an ounce. However, technical analysts said that as long as gold remained below $1,300 it faced the risk of further declines. The dollar dipped against a basket of currencies as US Treasury yields fell. The next major data release is on December 6, when nonfarm payroll figures are scheduled. The Fed’s next policy meeting will be held on December 17-18. Gold, whose appeal as a hedge against inflation has been burnished by the Fed’s quantitative easing, has fallen more than 25% this year as investors pulled money out of bullion to invest in higher-yielding equities on signs the US central bank would start withdrawing stimulus. Economists polled by Reuters expect the US central bank to begin tapering only in March, with a small chance it could do so as soon as January. Until then, the Fed will carry on creating $85bn of new money every month by purchasing bonds for its own portfolio. Chinese demand China’s net gold imports from Hong Kong hit the highest in seven months in October, data released on Wednesday showed. China is set to overtake India as the biggest gold consumer this year. Rules introduced by the Indian government earlier this year to reduce a high current account deficit, curbed demand for gold, the second-largest item on its import bill after oil. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, the world’s largest jewellery retailer by market value, posted a 92.3% rise in net profit for the six months ended in September. Silver rose 1.2% to $20.07 an ounce. Spot platinum gained 0.9% to $1,380.75 an ounce, while spot palladium was up 0.9% to $722.55 an ounce.

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