Gold Futures Settle Slightly Lower After Five Straight Days Of Gains

Gold futures settled lower on Thursday, snapping a five-session winning streak. However, a sell-off in global stocks, lower bond yields and a weak dollar limited gold’s downside.

Global stocks tumbled today amid rising worries about the outlook for the global economic rebound after China said its central bank would ease its monetary policy to revive growth.

Data showing an unexpected increase in U.S. jobless claims last week also weighed on stocks.

Rates on 10-year Treasuries fell to their lowest since February and equities slumped as new variants of COVID-19 continued to spread rapidly across the world.

Gold futures for August ended down by $1.90 or about 0.1% at $1,800.20 an ounce after rising to $1,819.50 an ounce earlier in the day.

Silver futures for September settled at $25.987 an ounce, giving up more than 14 cents, while Copper futures for September shed about 1.3%, settling at $4.2645 per pound.

The Labor Department’s report showed initial jobless claims unexpectedly inched higher in the week ended July 3rd. The report said jobless claims crept up to 373,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 371,000.

The uptick surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 350,000 from the 364,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The minutes from the Fed’s June meeting released overnight also provided some support to gold.

Notes from the Fed’s June meeting indicated officials weren’t ready to communicate a timeline for slowing stimulus, given uncertainties around the economic outlook.

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