Spot gold prices have dropped off the 1250 barrier, affected by strong US economic data, which has raised expectations of a Fed rate hike more than twice this year.

Spot gold prices fell 0.08% to trade around $ 1249 an ounce.

Gold prices have been affected by the rebound in the US dollar from a four-and-a-half-month low, with the US Congress likely passing one of the fiscal stimulus policies and following comments from Federal Open Committee members about raising benchmark interest rates.

US crude oil prices continued to rise, amid supply turbulence in Libya and expectations of an extension of oil production cuts from OPEC until the second half of this year, as investors awaited the report of the US Energy Information Administration report.

Future Crude oil for May delivery rose 0.30% to trade at $ 48.53 a barrel.

Oil production from Sharara and Wafa fields in western Libya has been stopped by armed protesters, which has cut production by 252,000 barrels per day,a source at the National Oil Corporation told reuters.

Talks about reductions in OPEC-led oil production are offset by a rise in drilling and shale production in the United States, posing a state of price instability.

The latest weekly American Petroleum Institute (API) inventory data for the week ending March 24th reported a build of 1.91 million barrels. This followed the build of 4.53 million barrels last week and was the 10th build in the last 12 weeks. Consensus forecasts were for a build of just over 1.0 million barrels on the week and the overall market reaction was very limited.