Supportive rhetoric has emerged from the US in recent days, with Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell continuing his testimony to Congress on Thursday, reportedly saying the Fed was adopting a wait-and-see approach on inflation.

"June's gold selling was almost entirely a knee-jerk synthetic affair driven by algorithmic, headline scanning robotic macro funds," Sprott senior portfolio manager John Hathaway said.

We believe the smackdown was a temporary reaction to the perceived change in the Fed's posture towards possible balance sheet reduction, he said.

"In our opinion, gold and gold mining stocks are compelling buys and the investment rationale for precious metals exposure remains unscathed."

Elsewhere, copper was up 0.42% overnight to $4.35/lb.

Thursday was a good session for base metals, with copper, lead, zinc and nickel all rising by more than 1%.