Gold rose as much as 1.3 percent on Thursday on safe-haven buying as oil continued its ascent and on a sliding dollar, but it would have to crack key resistance levels to sustain the uptrend.
Buying from speculators and physical buyers helped push up bullion, although position squaring could limit gains ahead of Monday's Labor Day holiday in the United States.
"Gold is still capped by the big resistance at $837, and above at $846. I don't think much would happen ahead of the U.S. long holiday weekend," said Peter Tse, a dealer at Scotia Mocatta in Hong Kong.
Gold <XAU=> firmed to $834.80/835.80 an ounce from $826.05/827.45 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday, having hit an intraday high of $836.40 an ounce.
Physical buying ahead of the festive season in Asia has helped gold rebound more than 7 percent since tumbling to nine-month lows around $773 an ounce in mid-August.
