2020.07.1610:27:00UTC+00Gold Weakens As Dollar Climbs

Gold prices eased on Thursday and the U.S. dollar climbed as investors reacted to weak Chinese retail sales data and shifted focus toward rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and a European summit due this weekend also remained on investors' radar.

Spot gold slid 0.25 percent to $1,805.82 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.35 percent at $1,807.30.

China today reported better-than-expected growth figures, but a worse-than-expected drop in retail sales in June suggested consumers are still reticent about spending.

U.S.-China tensions intensified after a senior U.S. official likened China's state enterprises to Britain's colonizing East India Company.

A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo branded most of Beijing's claims in the sea illegal, U.S. Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, David R Stilwell, told a Washington think-tank that oil major CNOOC and other firms were serving as "battering rams" to intimidate other nations.

In another development, a White House National Security Council spokesman said that President Donald Trump has not ruled out further sanctions on top Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong or on other issues.

The clarification came after Bloomberg reported earlier that Trump had ruled out additional sanctions on top officials for now to avoid escalating tensions.

Huawei said today the U.S. visa restrictions on its employees over the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party in the Xinjian region of northwest China were "an unfair and arbitrary action".

Looking ahead, the focus is on the European Central Bank's meeting later in the day, with economists expecting no new measures.