Gold rose to its highest in nearly five weeks on Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting last month signalled that a hike in US interest rates in September may be unlikely. Fed officials worried that lagging US inflation and a weak global economy posed too big a risk to commit to a "lift off" on rates, buoying gold that had been out of favour amid an imminent tightening in US monetary policy.
"Given that the possibility for a hike in September has diminished, I would think there is a higher probability for a December rate hike. And that does give a near-term support to gold prices," said Barnabas Gan, analyst at OCBC Bank in Singapore.
Spot gold rose as far as $1,141.75 an ounce, its loftiest since July 17, and was up 0.4 percent at $1,138.50 by 0619 GMT.
US gold for December delivery was up nearly 1 percent at $1,138.20 an ounce, after peaking at $1,141.80 earlier.
Spot gold has now recovered nearly 6 percent from a 5-1/2-year low of $1,077 reached in a late July rout.