The tapering would support a rise in interest rates and bolster the dollar, reducing gold's attractiveness.
Spot gold touched a low of $1,267.29 an ounce earlier as the dollar's rebound strengthened, briefly curbing its biggest weekly climb since October 2011 to a best performance in 11 weeks. It was trading down 0.4 percent at $1,279.80 by 1349 GMT. Analysts said the metal now faces strong resistance crossing the $1,300 level.
Comex gold futures for August delivery also retreated from a two-and-a-half week high near $1,300 hit in the previous session to $1,278.70 an ounce, down $1.20.
Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust GLD remained unchanged at four-and-a-half year lows of 30.192 million ounces on Thursday. The fund posted the biggest weekly loss of 2.6 percent since the end of April.
Silver fell 1.3 percent to $19.83 an ounce, having reached a three-week high of $20.26 on Thursday. Platinum was down 0.5 percent to $1,397.99 an ounce after hitting a three-week high of $1,414.75 earlier. Palladium slipped 0.1 percent to $715.50 an ounce.

2013-7-13 20:19