Gold slipped slightly from its all time high on Wednesday as the dollar steadied, while global stocks rose for the third day in a row.
Investors also continued their scramble for yield, lifting the Australian dollar to 14-month highs on the prospects for higher interest rates after Tuesday's tightening.
Gold trimmed some gains but hovered near the all-time high of $1,043.45 hit on Tuesday.
The metal has been driven higher in part by concerns that the dollar is losing favor, including potentially as the currency for settling oil trades.
Wednesday saw some selling -- gold was down around $3 an ounce -- and some analysts were questioning whether it had peaked for the time being.
Investor Jim Rogers, one of the biggest bulls during this decade's commodities rally, said he would stay clear of buying gold for now, although he predicted prices will continue to go up over the long term.
"Gold has hit a new high and I don't like to buy something at record prices unless there are extremely strong fundamental reasons," he said.
World equities as measured by MSCI, in the meantime, added another 0.3 percent to wipe out this month's losses and stand 26 percent higher for the year. .MIWD00000PUS
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index was flat after the index gained more than 2 percent on Tuesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Japan's Nikkei average .N225 closed 1.1 percent higher.
DOLLAR DIPS
The dollar was flat to slightly weaker against a basket of major currencies .DXY while higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar were in favor.
"With the view that the low interest rate policy in the U.S. will likely be around for a while, an abundant supply of dollars is flowing into higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar and emerging market currencies," said Kazuyuki Kato, treasury department manager at Mizuho Trust & Banking.
The greenback came under pressure on Tuesday after a report of forex diversification by oil-producing countries. Some of the countries later denied such a move.
The euro slipped 0.1 percent to around $1.47, but stayed in sight of near two-week highs touched on Tuesday.
