The spot gold price was earlier above US$1,232 an ounce having fallen as low as $1,211.76 on Thursday.

"China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and interest rates lower, while the US is raising rates while the dollars gets stronger and stronger with each passing day - taking away our big competitive edge. As usual, not a level playing field...," Trump tweeted on Friday.

Mining stocks were mixed, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index metals and mining stocks closing 0.19% lower on Friday.

Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) was the outlier, rising 3.52% on no news.

In the US, the small number of mining stocks on the S&P500 were up 0.72% due to a strong gain by Nucor Corp (NYSE: NUE), up 2.44%.

In London, mining stocks were lower with Glencore (LSE: GLEN) down 1.61%.

Metals and mining stocks were down 0.8% overall around lunchtime on the ASX but the gold sector was in positive territory.

Gold producers St Barbara (ASX: SBM) and Resolute Mining (ASX: RSG) were both up around 1% at the time of writing.