Gold climbs to four-week high on dollar's drop and haven demand

Political and economic surprises in 2016 sparked a surge in buying that sent bullion to the first annual gain in four years. Picture / file.

Gold climbed to a four-week high as a weaker dollar and uncertainty over the impact of Donald Trump's policies bolstered demand for a haven.

Bullion has increased every trading session this year, with spot prices rising as much as 1.8 percent to $1,185.14 an ounce on Thursday. Gold is advancing as the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index retreats from the highest in more than a decade.

Gold is recovering from the biggest quarterly slump since 2013 as minutes from the US Federal Reserve's latest meeting released Wednesday showed uncertainty over how President-elect Trump's policies would affect the pace of interest-rate increases.

The Fed minutes "made the dollar bulls wary," Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at Think Markets UK, said in an email.

"Too many pieces are moving together, which are creating the biggest threat for globalization and integration," he said. "This makes the yellow metal highly attractive and we think it has a strong potential to break the resistance of $1,200."

Most on the Federal Open Market Committee reiterated that a "gradual" pace of rate hikes over the coming years would likely remain appropriate.

"Last night's Fed minutes highlighted the uncertainty that still prevails," said Jonathan Butler, a precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi Corp. in London. "Expectations of aggressive rate hikes in 2017 may be overdone, leaving the yield environment favorable to gold."

Bullion for immediate delivery was up 1.5 per cent at $1,180.62 at 2:22 p.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. On the Comex in New York, gold futures for February delivery gained 1.4 per cent to settle at $1,181.30. The Bloomberg dollar gauge dropped as much as 1.2 per cent.

In other precious metals news:

• Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded funds fell 1.14 metric tons to 1,771.4 tons as of Wednesday, the lowest since May, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

• Silver and platinum also rose in the spot market.

• Palladium slipped after rallying 11 per cent in the previous four sessions. Prices had advanced amid improving outlook for demand from carmakers, which use the metal to curb harmful emissions.