Gold rallies to 3-month high on weaker dollar, bullish technicals

Gold climbed to a more than three-month high on Friday, on track for its third straight weekly gain, aided by a break above key technical levels as the U.S. Treasury's buyback support plan dragged on the dollar.

Spot gold climbed 1.6% to $4,590.51 per ounce by 10:19 a.m. EDT (1419 GMT), earlier touching $4,604.18 — its highest since May 15. U.S. gold futures rose 1.7% to $4,647.00.

Prices have gained about 5% so far this week, including the biggest one-day rise since early February on Wednesday.

The metal is also trading above all key moving averages, having broken above the closely watched 200-day moving average of around $4,513, a move technical analysts typically view as bullish.

"A big factor, of course, is technical... next step is $4,700 if this momentum continues, but also I think it's been very much driven by a drop in the U.S. dollar," said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities.