By Clara Denina
LONDON (Reuters) - Gold fell on Wednesday as strong U.S. data and optimistic global growth prospects prompted a rally in the dollar and equities, drawing interest away from the metal.
Spot gold eased 0.5 percent to $1,238.10 an ounce by 1240 GMT. It posted a 0.7 percent loss on Tuesday after touching a one-month peak of $1,255.00 earlier in the day.
A disappointing U.S. jobs report last week stoked speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve would remain very cautious on the pace of its stimulus tapering and provided a boost to gold.
But strong U.S. retail sales data on Tuesday and the first rise in the World Bank's forecast for global economic growth in three years lifted the dollar and equity markets.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $8.00 to $1,237.30 an ounce.
"Gold is giving back some of the strength seen over the past week, with quite a significant level of resistance above the $1,255 level," Saxo Bank senior manager Ole Hansen said.
"U.S. data showing that retail sales have taken off neutralised the bad number of the U.S. jobs report on Friday, giving a boost to the dollar."
The dollar rose 0.3 percent versus a basket of currencies, making dollar-denominated gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Share markets were mostly higher after the World Bank upgraded its 2014 forecast for global growth by 0.2 percentage point to 3.2 percent and predicted a faster pace for both 2015 and 2016.
"Stronger dollar and shares are a challenge for gold ... we need to see some more data come through, but the overall expectation is that the Fed will continue to taper at the same rate and that they won't react to just one or two U.S. numbers to change their view," Hansen said.
The Fed announced its first cut to the $85 billion in monthly bond purchases in December, citing an improving economy. Markets are now closely watching data to gauge whether the central bank will deepen the cuts.
As a gauge of investor sentiment, holdings in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, fell 3.56 tonnes to a five-year low of 789.56 tonnes on Tuesday.
In the physical markets, premiums on the Shanghai Gold Exchange for 99.99 percent purity gold remained largely steady at about $13 an ounce.
China has granted licences to import gold to two foreign banks for the first time, sources told Reuters, as moves to open the world's biggest physical bullion market gather pace.
Silver fell 0.6 percent to $20.09 an ounce.
Spot platinum dropped 0.8 percent at $1,414.75 an ounce, while palladium was unchanged at $733.25 an ounce.
The metals failed to react to news that South Africa's Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) said it would not hesitate to call a strike in the platinum industry over wage negotiations.
(Additional reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore; Editing by William Hardy and Jane Baird)
