WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures settled lower on Thursday, turning weak after two successive days of gains, as investors looked ahead to U.S. non-farm payroll data, due on Friday.
The yellow metal slipped despite the dollar's continued weakness. The dollar's weakness was due to bets the Fed will lower interest rate again following weaker-than-expected private sector employment and service sector activity data.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicates a 75.5% chance the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by 25 basis points later this month.
The dollar index, which dropped to 105.73, recovered to 105.80, but still remained nearly 0.5% down from previous close.
Gold futures for December closed down $27.20 or about 1.02% at $2,626.60 an ounce.
Silver futures for December settled at $31.134 an ounce with a loss of $0.371 or 1.18%, while Copper futures for September dropped to $4.1345 per pound, down $0.0075 or 0.18%.
the Labor Department released a report this morning showing a modest increase by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended November 30th.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 224,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 215,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.
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