Spot gold was at $472.85/473.35 an ounce in afternoon trade, little changed from $472.20/473.00 an ounce last quoted in New York on Tuesday, when it rose more than $7.
A weaker dollar ignited fund buying in London and New York and pushed the price to a one-week high at $473.30 an ounce. Key support was pegged at around $469 an ounce, which was the metal's previous resistance.
"The fact that we are moving back to these levels again tell us the market wants to go up. I am still bullish and gold will soon re-test $475, maybe tomorrow," said one dealer in Singapore, referring to immediate resistance.
Gains among other precious metals inspired fund buying in thinly-traded palladium, a metal used in jewellery and auto catalysts. Spot palladium rose to $216/220 from $213/217 an ounce late in New York.
Some dealers were bullish on palladium on the prospect of more demand in China, where many jewellers abandoned pricey sister metal platinum in favour of palladium.
"I don't see much activity in TOCOM (the Tokyo Commodity Exchange) but we noted fund buying in New York," said one dealer in Tokyo.
The benchmark palladium August contract in TOCOM rose 30 yen per gram to 810 yen.
Precious metals refiner Johnson Matthey said earlier this year that purchases of palladium by Chinese jewellery makers amounted to 700,000 ounces in 2004, exceeding all expectations.
Global demand for palladium for the manufacture of jewellery soared to 920,000 ounces in 2004 from 250,000 in 2003, it said.
Some dealers said gold was gaining strength and could target $500 in the coming months on worries about inflation and the US economy. Gold rose to a near-18-year high at $480.25 two weeks ago on fund buying before profit-taking kicked in.
Speculation that the likely next Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, would show a more cautious stance on interest rates than Alan Greenspan could also support gold, they said.
The euro was little changed at $1.2105, having touched a one-week high of $1.2118 in New York due to weaker-than-expected US consumer confidence data.
The Conference Board's confidence index for October came in at a two-year low of 85.0. That compared with analysts' expectations for a small rise to 88.1 and raised concerns that soaring oil prices could curb US consumer spending.
In other precious metals, platinum rose to $938/942 an ounce from $936/939 in New York.
Silver rose to $7.80/7.82 an ounce from $7.78/7.81 in the US market.