LONDON: Gold hit six-week lows on Friday in thin trade ahead of the holiday weekend as the dollar strengthened on US economic data and investor sentiment was undermined by longer-term expectations for a US rate rise.

Technical factors were also at play, with downward momentum gathering pace as prices broke through their April low at $1,175 an ounce.

Spot gold fell 1 percent to $1,171.76 an ounce at 1439 GMT, while US gold futures for June delivery were down $11.50 an ounce at $1,170.90. Earlier spot prices fell more than 1 percent to $1,170.20, their lowest since March 20.

Gold hit its highest since early April at $1,215 earlier this week but failed to hold that level after the Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that it sees the recent slowdown in the US economy as transitory, not ruling out an interest rate rise this year.

"There is still fallout from the FOMC — there has been a hiccup in the US recovery, but certainly the view is that interest rates are going up, so gold is struggling," said Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

"On a thin bank holiday weekend, that will be exacerbated."

Gold has traded in a narrow range over the past month on uncertainty over the timing of the Fed's first interest rate rise in nearly a decade despite weakness in the dollar, which suffered its worst month in four years in April.

The metal is highly sensitive to expectations for rate increases, which would lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while boosting the dollar.

The dollar, strengthening of which makes gold more expensive for holders of other currencies, rose half a percent against a basket of currencies after US consumer confidence and manufacturing data.

Major European markets, with the exception of London, were closed for the May Day holiday on Friday.

From a chart perspective, a weekly close for gold below the $1,180 support level could be the catalyst for a further pull-back, analysts said.

"This $1,130-1,180 support area could well come under examination in a more crucial way than we've seen recently," Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said.

Silver was down 1 percent at $15.95 an ounce, while platinum slipped by 0.6 percent to $1,128.24 an ounce and palladium edged 0.2 percent lower to $772.97 an ounce.