Despite a fairly steady dollar and rising bond yields, gold prices moved higher on Thursday, extending gains from previous session, thanks to data showing a bigger than expected drop in U.S. jobless claims in the week ended August 3rd.
The yellow metal attracted investors amid persisting concerns about geopolitical tensions, and continued uncertainty about the outlook for global economic growth.
Optimism about a series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve helped as well.
The dollar index, which was down in the red during the Asian and European sessions, climbed to 103.55 around mid morning before paring some gains. The index was last seen at 103.30, up by about 0.1%.
Gold futures for August ended up $31.70 or about 1.33% at $2,422.20 an ounce.
Silver futures for August settled higher by $0.670 or about 2.5% at $27.500 an ounce, while Copper futures for August climbed to $3.9460 per pound, gaining $0.0085.
Data from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected last week.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 233,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous weeks revised level of to 250,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 240,000 from the 249,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The bigger than expected decline came a week after jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 258,000 in the week ended August 5, 2023. The data has helped ease concerns about the strength of the labor market, which have contributed to recent selling on Wall Street.