The pair of gold/ US Dollar closed on a rise because of Ben Bernanke, which said that the Fed will not reduce the Assets purchase program in the near future, the issue which put the US Dollar under a high pressure.
The Fed follow a flexible policy to avoid commodities decline. It is obvious that they want to reduce the assets purchase program but they choose to slow down this move. The US retail data today will assure the next trading level of gold, for the short time trading but for now we are in a narrow trading area between $1240 and 1311 USD/ Ounce of gold. most of investors are waiting for the US retail data today and it is the only reason pushed gold price slightly down.
From a technical point of view we can see that we stuck between the level of $1240 and 1311 USD/ Ounce for the short time. The movement of gold price in the down channel appear more clear on the chart and in that case we had a support level at $1240 then $1222 USD/ Ounce temporary. In the case of negative US data we will watch the rise channel take the gold market up to the level of $1300 USD/ Ounce then $1311 USD/ Ounce of gold.