Gold rose 1 percent on Thursday as the dollar fell sharply against the yen and the euro on fears of disappointing US jobs data the next day. After trading mostly flat, gold suddenly turned higher at midday in New York as investors sold long positions on the greenback - or bets that the US currency will rise - ahead of Friday's all-important US nonfarm payrolls numbers.
Gold has been under pressure recently on a resurgent dollar driven by expectations that upbeat data would prompt the US Federal Reserve to taper its $85-billion-per-month bond-buying program. Spot gold climbed 0.8 percent to $1,414.35 an ounce by 2:38 pm EDT (1838 GMT), off a three-week high at $1,423.16 set earlier in the session. US Comex gold futures for August delivery settled up $17.30 at $1,415.80 an ounce, with trading volume about 25 percent below its 30-day average, preliminary Reuters data showed. Among other precious metals, silver gained 0.6 percent to $22.65 an ounce, platinum climbed 0.9 percent to $1,524 an ounce, and palladium rose 0.3 percent to $757.72 an ounce.
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