1.   Investors who had bet on a gold price decline scurried to buy the metal back, while producers bought to limit their hedging losses.

2.   The early gains prompted rounds of covering by short sellers, who had bet that prices would fall and bought to limit their losses.

3.   The early surge in prices prompted short sellers to buy to limit their losses.

4.   Buying in order to limit losses helped firm up the market, said Jason Roose with US Commodities.

5.   The dollar was sharply higher against other major currencies in New York Wednesday in active trading due to a wave of buying to limit losses.