Gold steady as weaker dollar offsets profit taking

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold was little changed in Europe on Friday as renewed weakness in the dollar and rising oil prices balanced out profit taking after Thursday's gains.

Traders were watching the crude market ahead of a weekend meeting of oil producers and consumers in Saudi Arabia, with any fresh strength in oil prices likely to pull gold higher.

Gold was trading at $900.45/901.45 an ounce at 0923 GMT from $902.95/904.35 an ounce late in New York on Thursday, when it jumped as high as $907.90 an ounce, its strongest level in more than a week.

The metal eased earlier on Friday as investors took profits after Thursday's price rally failed to take gold through its previous high of $908.70, hit on June 9.

"From a technical point of view, we have failed to go above the high we saw last week," said Wolfgang Wrzesniok-Rossbach, head of sales at precious metals trading group Heraeus.

"That would have been a bullish signal to the market that would have attracted some speculators, as there is not a lot of resistance from there to $935 an ounce," he added.

Traders were keeping an eye on currency markets for signs as to the future direction of trade, he said.

The dollar weakened a touch on Friday, keeping gold firmly supported above $900 an ounce, after a raft of poor data raised concerns over the health of the U.S. economy.

"(Gold) prices are holding firm partly in response to speculation that the U.S. Fed could delay increasing interest rates," said Fairfax analyst Marc Elliott.