Gold prices climbed on Thursday as yields eased from two-week highs and the dollar softened ahead of U.S. jobs data to be released Friday.
Spot gold jumped 0.9 percent to $1,780.70 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were up 1.1 percent at $1,796.70.
The upside was supported by a pullback in U.S. Treasury yields after San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said that it would be reasonable for the Fed to raise rates interest rates by 50 basis points at the next meeting in September.
U.S.-China tensions remained on investors' radar after China said that it conducted "precision missile strikes" in the Taiwan Strait as part of military exercises that have raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades.
China is staging live-fire military drills in six self-declared zones surrounding Taiwan in response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island Beijing claims as its own territory.
