Gold price traded higher on a weaker U.S. dollar

Gold price traded higher on a weaker U.S. dollar. The greenback declined after the soft U.S. economic data. New home sales dropped 11.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000 units in March from 543,000 units in February. It was the steepest fall since July 2013.

Analysts had expected new home sales to reach 514,000 units.

The drop was driven by lower sales in the Northeast in the South.

The U.S. preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 54.2 in April from 55.7 in March, missing expectations for a decline to 55.6. The decline was driven by a drop in new orders.

The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending April 18 in the U.S. climbed by 1,000 to 295,000 from 294,000 in the previous week, missing expectations for a fall by 4,000.

The Greek debt crisis also supported gold price. The Greek government hopes to unlock a new tranche of loans at the Eurogroup meeting on April 24. Some European officials expressed concerns that an agreement between Greece and its creditors will be signed this week.

The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the EU summit in Brussels today. The exact extent or nature of the conversation was not immediately known.

June futures for gold on the COMEX today rose to 1191.80 dollars per ounce.