PRECIOUS-Gold rebounds over 2% on robust sentiment, dollar weakness

* Gold bounces back after ending worst week since March
* Markets await U.S. Fed's policy meeting minutes on
Wednesday
* Dollar falls to more than one-week low, Treasury yields
dip
* Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus:
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(Recasts, updates prices, adds comment)
By Sumita Layek
Aug 17 (Reuters) - Gold jumped over 2% to its highest in
nearly a week on Monday as a weaker dollar, a pull-back in U.S.
Treasury yields along with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
buying a stake in major gold miner bolstered investor morale.
Spot gold XAU= climbed 1.9% to $1,981.41 an ounce by 2:17
p.m. EDT (1817 GMT) and U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled up 2.5%
at $1,998.70.
Gold last week registered its biggest decline since March as
investors reassessed positions after bullion retreated sharply
from a record peak of $2,072.50 scaled on Aug. 7.
"The sharp pullback in prices and the price action that has
followed has revealed quite a bit about the underlying extent of
speculative appetite for precious metals," said Daniel Ghali,
commodity strategist at TD Securities, adding that the fact
Warren Buffett has now "embraced gold" is helping sentiment.
A regulatory filing on Friday disclosed Berkshire Hathaway's
new 20.9 million share investment in one of the world's largest
mining companies, Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO . "Recognizing that he has bought a stock and not gold
commodity itself, it does provide a compelling narrative for
those that were looking to buy gold and perhaps remained on the
sidelines, but the positive sentiment now is helping them pull
the trigger," Ghali added.
Also helping gold, the dollar .DXY fell to a more than
one-week low, benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yields eased
and the New York Fed's Empire State Manufacturing Survey index
dropped to 3.7. USD/ US/ Investors now await the minutes from the U.S. Federal
Reserve's last policy meeting on Wednesday. "The market expects the Fed to be very supportive, we'll be
above $2,000 per ounce before Fed minutes, and north of $2,250
by the end of year," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market
strategist at RJO Futures.
Elsewhere, silver XAG= rose 3.7% to $27.37 an ounce,
platinum XPT= gained 1.5% to $950.03 and palladium XPD=
jumped 4.1% to $2,194.55.