Gold at four-week high, palladium lifted by record car sales

By Clara Denina

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold touched its highest in four weeks on Thursday as the dollar slipped further from a 14-year peak hit earlier this week.

Spot gold rose as much as 1.4 percent to its highest since Dec. 7 at $1,179.36 an ounce and was up 0.9 percent at $1,173.62 at 1256 GMT.

U.S. gold futures climbed $8.80 to $1,174.10.

Spot prices are heading for a near 2 percent gain for the week so far, having benefited from a halt in the dollar's rise.

"Although the wider picture hasn't changed and U.S. growth is improving, there shouldn't be any further significant appreciation in the dollar after the strong run of the past few months and uncertainty about economic policy changes going forward," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said, adding that this should be supportive for dollar-denominated gold.

The best-performing precious metal this week is palladium, up 7.8 percent this week and on course for its biggest weekly gain since July.

The metal, mostly used to clean exhaust emissions from gasoline-powered catalysts, has been bought in anticipation of record vehicle sales in the United States and was also boosted by a lower dollar, analysts said.

U.S. car sales December data on Wednesday showed sales of new cars and trucks rose to a record high in 2016.

The dollar fell 0.4 percent against a basket of six main currencies. [FRX]

Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's December meeting showed that almost all policymakers thought the economy could grow more quickly with expected fiscal stimulus under the Donald Trump administration.

At the same time, Fed policymakers "emphasised their considerable uncertainty" about future economic policy changes.

Spot gold fell more than 8 percent in November and touched a 10-month low in December on a higher dollar and U.S. Treasury yields after Trump's election win and as the Fed raised interest rates for the first time in a year. It has now increased by about 5 percent from those lows.

Buying from China, the biggest gold consumer, is also supporting the recent rally, traders said.

"The Chinese New Year is around the corner. Gold kilobar demand is picking up right now, with strong premiums on the mainland," a Japan-based precious metals trader said.

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged on Wednesday at 813.87 tonnes. They have dropped about 14 percent since the U.S. election in November.

Spot silver was up 0.9 percent at $16.56 an ounce after touching a three-week high of $16.70.

Platinum reached its highest in nearly eight weeks at $960.10 before retreating to $953.50, up 1.5 percent.

(Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by David Evans and David Goodman)