Gold notes decline as investors shrugged off mixed US economic data and focused on the situation with Greece.

US Department of Labor reports that the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ended January 31 rose by 11,000 to 278,000 from a revised 267,000 the previous week.

Analysts had expected the number of complaints increased by 10,000 to 277,000.

A separate report showed that the US trade deficit rose in December to $ 46.56 billion from $ 39.75 billion in November, whose figure was revised up from $ 39.00 billion. Analysts had expected in December, the trade deficit will fall to $ 38.00 billion .

Market participants are now preparing for Friday's report on employment in the US non-farm payrolls to obtain additional information regarding the strength of the recovery in the labor market.

Analysts predict that in January, the US economy added 231,000 jobs in December after 252,000, while the unemployment rate is projected to remain unchanged at 5.6%.

Strong employment rates in the non-agricultural sector, are likely to increase speculation about the timing recovery rates by the Federal Reserve System, while the weak values can contribute to the growth of gold, weakening incentives for early recovery rates.

Meanwhile, investors remain cautious because of the situation with Greece after the European Central Bank refused to accept Greek bonds as collateral for lending, shifting responsibility to provide additional liquidity to local banks to the central bank of Greece and put pressure on Athens.

The Greek government is trying to ease the debt pressure on the current debt of 240 billion euros causing fears of a possible conflict with its creditors, which can result in damage to the country and the euro area.

On Thursday, the main stock index has fallen sharply in Athens, while the yield on 10-year Greek government bonds jumped to nearly 11%.

April futures price of gold on the COMEX today fell to 1257.70 dollars per ounce.