WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled lower on Thursday, due largely to some profit taking after seven successive days of gains.
The downside remained capped amid bets that policymakers at the Fed, ECB and BOE will cut rates at their June meetings.
Despite the dollar's slight weakness, gold prices drifted down as investors awaited the crucial U.S. non-farm payroll data, due on Friday, for more clarity about the outlook for Fed interest rates.
The dollar index dropped to 103.92 before recovering to 104.06, still down nearly 0.2% from the previous close.
Gold futures for June ended down by $6.50 at $2,308.50 an ounce.
Silver futures for May ended up by $0.187 at $27.247 an ounce, while Copper futures for May ended higher by $0.0550 at $4.2490 per pound.
Fed officials will likely reduce their benchmark interest rate later this year, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday but nevertheless emphasized the need for more evidence that inflation is easing.
Elsewhere, ECB's Robert Holzmann said the central bank could start cutting interest rates in June but warned the ECB should not get too far ahead of its U.S. counterpart.
In U.S. economic releases, a Labor Department report showed initial jobless claims climbed to 221,000 in the week ended March 30th, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 212,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 214,000 from the 210,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 225,000 in the week ended January 27th.
The advance by jobless claims has generated some optimism about the outlook for interest rates, although the likelihood of a rate cut in June remains uncertain.
The Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for March tomorrow.
Economists currently expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs in March after surging by 275,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9%.
Copyright(c) 2024 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2024 AFX News
