Gold climbs to four-month high as dollar drops

Gold futures rose to the best since September 8 as the dollar index plumbed three-year lows, amid a lack of data from the US due to the Martin Luther King holiday. 

As of 04:24 GMT, gold futures due on February 15 rose 0.46% to $1,341 an ounce from the opening of $1,334.90, while the dollar index declined 0.62% to 90.41 from the opening of 90.97. 

Markets are still pricing in rate hike chances by the European Central Bank and its Japanese counterpart in 2018, which would close some of the gap between them and the Federal Reserve and weigh on the dollar. 

Inversely, chances of a Fed rate hike in March fell after a spate of disappointing US inflation data, in turn bashing the greenback to 2015 lows last week. 

Last month, President Donald Trump singed into law the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill, which cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, while also signing a stopgap government spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, in turn underpinning Wall Street to successive record highs. 

Gold holdings at the SPDR Trust, the world's largest gold-backed investment fund, settled on Friday at 828.96 tonnes, the lowest since August 29, after rising 3% on 2017, or about 23.63 tonnes.