Gold Futures Settle Marginally Lower

Gold futures settled slightly lower on Thursday, with traders assessing the likely impact of the Bank of England’s intervention in the bond market and the tighter monetary policy stance of the central banks.

The dollar’s retreat and a sell-off in equities markets helped limit the yellow metal’s downside.

The dollar index, which rose to 113.79 in the Asian session, pared gains and subsequently slipped into negative territory to 112.10 by noon. It was last seen hovering around 112.30, down 0.27% from the previous close.

Gold futures for December settled lower by $1.40 at $1,668.60 an ounce.

Silver futures for December ended down $0.168 at $18.712 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.4180 per pound, up $0.0595 from the previous close.

Data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims slipped to a five-month low of 193,000 in the week ended September 24th, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 209,000.

While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, traders may view the data as giving the Federal Reserve confidence that it can continue to aggressively raise interest rates.

The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed the annual rate of growth in core consumer prices in the second quarter was upwardly revised to 5% from 4.8%.

The surge in core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, was still slightly slower than the 5.3% spike in the first quarter.

Source: Read Full Article