Gold futures inched higher on Thursday, with the precious metal attempting its first back-to-back gain in two weeks, supported by some weakness in the U.S. dollar. However, a rise in assets considered risky, like global stocks, may undercut some of the appeal for gold from haven buyers.
“Indeed, the current global optimism has caused traders and other mid-term investors to rotate away from defensive values and safe havens to riskier assets, which represents a strong bearish market driver for gold,” wrote Pierre Veyret, technical analyst at ActivTrades, in a Thursday note.
August gold was trading $2.10, or 0.1%, at $1,785.80 an ounce, following a 0.3% gain a day ago, which helped to mark the highest settlement for a most-active contract since June 16, FactSet data show. Bullion hasn’t registered consecutive gains since June 10, FactSet data show.
A measure of the U.S. dollar, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.1% on Thursday at 91.712, down 0.5% so far this week after touching a two-month high last week. The dollar index is still up 1.9% in the month to date.
Meanwhile, July silver was a penny, or less than 0.1%, higher at around $26.12 an ounce, following a 1% rise a day ago.
Metals markets didn’t see substantial movement after a glut of U.S. data Thursday morning, which also saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index set to maintain its trajectory higher.
In the U.S. data, first-time applications for unemployment benefits in the week ended June 19, dipped by 7,000 to 411,000 after an upward revision to prior numbers. Economists had expected the number of initial claims to fall to 380,000 from 412,000 in the previous week.
A final reading of first-quarter gross domestic product came in at an unrevised 6.4% annual rate, a report on U.S. durable-goods orders climbed 2.3% in May, while core capital goods orders slipped 0.1% on the month, and a reading on U.S. advanced trade deficit in goods widened to $88.1 billion in May from $85.7 in the prior month.
Source: Marketwatch