WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled higher on Thursday, extending gains to a seventh straight session, as investors continued to bet on further reductions in interest rates, and on hopes about more stimulus measures from the Chinese government to spur growth in the world's second largest economy.
An escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and a weaker dollar also made bullion more attractive to investors.
The dollar index dropped to 100.52, losing nearly 0.4%.
Gold futures for September ended higher by $10.70 or about 0.4% at $2,669.90 an ounce.
Silver futures for September ended up $0.327 or 1.03% at $32.025 an ounce, while Copper futures for October climbed to $4.5875 per pound, gaining $0.1565 or about 3.5%.
The dollar edged lower in European trade as investors await speeches from key Federal Reserve policymakers as well as the release of jobless claims figures and the final reading of the second quarter GDP for additional clues on the health of the economy and the pace of interest rate cuts.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the chances of a jumbo 50-bps cut in November currently remain above 60%.
Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kuglar said during her overnight appearance that she 'strongly supported' last week's 50-bps rate cut and 'will support additional rate cuts going forward.'
Earlier today, the Swiss National Bank reduced its key policy rate by 25 basis points for the third straight meeting and signaled that further cuts in the SNB policy rate may become necessary in the coming quarters to ensure price stability over the medium term.
In U.S. economic news, data from the Labor Department initial jobless claims slipped to 218,000 in the week ended September 21st, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 222,000. The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to rise to 225,000 from the 219,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A report released by the National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index climbed by 0.6% to 70.6 in August after plunging by 5.5% to 70.2 in July.
Data from the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were virtually unchanged in the month of August, after soaring by 9.9% in July. Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 2.6%.
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