Gold touched its highest in four weeks on Thursday as the US dollar stepped further away from a 14-year peak hit earlier this week, and on a technical rebound. Spot gold was up 1.3 percent at $1,178.36 an ounce by 0641 GMT. It touched a high of $1,178.62, its best since December 7. US gold futures climbed 1.2 percent to $1,178.50 per ounce.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was down 0.7 percent at 102.030. "It's more of a dollar sell-off than a gold move," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA in Singapore. "The dollar is weak across the board and gold itself has technically broken out of its down channel in December." Spot gold has risen 5 percent from the more-than 10-month lows touched in December. Spot gold is expected to rise to $1,182 per ounce, according to Reuters' market analyst for commodities and energy technicals, Wang Tao.