Investing.com - Gold prices bounced off their lowest level in around three weeks on Tuesday, as worries about a global economic slowdown boosted appetite for safe haven assets.
Comex gold futures fell to an intraday low of $1,276.00 a troy ounce, the weakest since Dec. 28, before recovering to trade at $1,282.55 by 8:10AM ET (13:10 GMT).
Meanwhile, spot gold was trading at $1,283.07 per ounce, up $2.70, or almost 0.2%.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday trimmed its 2019 and 2020 global growth forecasts, citing a bigger-than-expected slowdown in China and the euro zone, and said failure to resolve trade tensions could further destabilize a slowing global economy.
The downgrade came just hours after China reported its slowest quarterly economic growth since the financial crisis and its weakest annual expansion since 1990.
The news prompted investors to shun riskier assets, such as stocks, and favor traditional safe haven assets like bullion.
Gains were limited however by a rising U.S. dollar, which held near a three-week high against a basket of major currencies.
A stronger dollar can be a negative for commodities priced in the currency, making them more expensive to users of other currencies.
Elsewhere in metals trading, silver futures lost 11.6 cents, or about 0.75%, at $15.28 a troy ounce.
Palladium futures, which hit a record high of $1,434.50 last week, dropped 2.4% to $1,302.30.
Platinum was down roughly 0.7% at $796.80.
Elsewhere, March copper dropped 1.6% to $2.676 a pound.
-- Reuters contributed to this report