Gold prices rose on Thursday, buoyed by a weaker dollar, while investor attention turned to US economic data for clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory.

Spot gold was up 0.4% at US$2,325.89 per ounce by 0940 GMT. US gold futures GCcv1 were steady at US$2,338.30.

"A softer US dollar is allowing spot gold to keep its head above the US$2,300 level for the time being," said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity Group.

The dollar index slipped 0.3%, making greenback-priced bullion more attractive for buyers holding other currencies.

However, gold may "run into sub-US$2,300 waters as markets continue unwinding geopolitical risk premiums. A healthy technical pullback had also been long overdue for the precious metal," Tan said.

Bullion prices have fallen over US$100 since hitting a record high of US$2,431.29 on April 12, and have dropped about 3% or US$66 this week so far.

"There's been some pressure on some investors, especially on the institutional side to perhaps raise some cash and they've done that by selling some of their commodity positions," said Marex analyst Edward Meir.

Investor focus has tilted from geopolitics to key US economic data to check if the Fed would have room to cut rates this year, and by how much.

The Fed's rate-setting committee is meeting on April 30-May 1. Before that, the US first-quarter GDP data is due later on Thursday and the March core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) data is due on Friday.

Spot silver rose 0.7% to US$27.37 per ounce. Spot platinum was up 0.8% to US$909.40, after falling for the previous nine sessions. Palladium was steady at US$1,000.70.

BHP Group said it will offer Anglo American's shareholders a premium of 31%, and carve out the London-listed group's iron ore and platinum assets in South Africa, where the world's largest listed miner has no activities.

  - Reuters