Gold Futures Settle Modestly Lower

Gold futures settled lower on Thursday after global stocks rebounded from recent losses as risk sentiment improved after Credit Suisse secured a lifeline from the Swiss National Bank.

Credit Suisse said that it would borrow up to $54 billion from SNB to shore up liquidity.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and several other big banks are reportedly discussing a potential deal with First Republic Bank.

The European Central Bank today hiked interest rates by 50 basis points, in line with its guidance in February, as it expects inflation to remain high for too long. The bank also said policymakers were closely monitoring the financial market turmoil triggered by the banking sector crisis in the US and Switzerland.

ECB assured that its toolkit is fully equipped to ensure sufficient liquidity support to the euro area financial system when needed.

A sluggish dollar limited gold’s downside. The dollar index, which traded weak in the Asian session, briefly emerged above the flat line to 104.74 by mid morning, but retreated subsequently and was last seen at 104.55, down marginally from the previous close.

Gold futures for April ended lower by $8.30 at $1,923.00 an ounce.

Silver futures for May ended down $0.19 at $21.692 an ounce, while Copper futures for May settled at $3.8645 per pound, gaining $0.0215.

In U.S. economic news, data released by the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims fell to 192,000 last week, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 212,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 205,000 from the 211,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed import prices dipped by 0.1% in February after falling by a revised 0.4% in January. Economists had expected import prices to slip by 0.2%, matching the decrease originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said import prices in February were down by 1.1% compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the first annual decrease since December 2020.

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