Gold advanced past the $1,900 mark on Thursday, boosted by an easing dollar and increased investor confidence that there will be further U.S. fiscal stimulus measures to aid the virus-beaten economy.

Spot gold rose 1.1% to $1,906.63 per ounce by 1232 GMT, having ended September 4.3% lower, in its biggest monthly drop since November 2016.

U.S. gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,909.20 per ounce.

On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "made a lot of progress" on the long-awaited COVID-19 relief legislation. 

StoneX analyst Rhona O'Connell said uncertainty over the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election remained a supportive factor longer term, but negotiations over stimulus between Pelosi and Mnuchin were likely to influence trade more in the short term.

Regardless of the election outcome, "there will still likely be wrangling over fiscal stimulus to try and maintain financial stability ... I think there will be decently sized stimulus anyway, but the political nuances will stay," she said.

The dollar dropped to a one-week low versus rival currencies, boosting gold's appeal to other currency holders. USD/

"There's nowhere to put your money that you will get a decent yield on. The money that's sloshing (from the stimulus) around in the system will find its way into gold," David Govett, CEO of Govett Precious Metals and a former trader said.

"I think it's going to get worse before it gets better and because of that gold is going to benefit and move back to $2,000."

Investors await a non-farm payrolls report on Friday, after U.S. weekly initial jobless claims data on Thursday showed claims totalled 837,000 in the week ended Sept. 26, below a Reuters forecast of 850,000. 

Among other precious metals, silver rose 2.5% to $23.80 per ounce.. Platinum hit a more than one-week high of $908.50 per ounce and was last up 1.7% to $902.93, while palladium gained 1.3% to $2,335.34.

(Reporting by Nakul Iyer and Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis) ((eileen.soreng@thomsonreuters.com; Within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, Outside U.S. +91 80 6749 6131; Reuters Messaging: eileen.soreng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))