US gold futures for June delivery settled down $10.20, or 0.8 per cent, at $1,322.80 per ounce. The dollar index rose to a four-month high against a basket of currencies.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up after a choppy session, with the Dow ending a five-day losing streak, but the Nasdaq posted its fifth straight loss, weighed down by technology stocks.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 0.1 per cent at 90.816, just below 91.076 hit in the previous session, its strongest level since January 12.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 7 cents at $67.63 per barrel. That was also off the late-2014 highs of $69.56 a barrel marked earlier in April.
The British bank, which revised its forecasts for the first time in almost a year, saw Brent and WTI crude prices averaging $71 a barrel and $68 a barrel respectively this year.
For the first time since 2009, smartphone sales in China fell last year while global sales fell in the fourth quarter of 2017 for the first time since 2004.
Stocks already were sharply lower before the comments following US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threat late Thursday on Chinese imports, which revived fears of a trade war between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday arrived in Washington for a state visit, raising speculation the United States could reimpose sanctions on Iran, following renewed criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal.
