Gold Futures Settle Higher
Gold futures ended modestly higher on Thursday, rebounding after suffering a sharp loss in the previous session.
The yellow metal’s uptick was partly due to expectations that the U.S. government will announce additional fiscal stimulus in the foreseeable future.
The dollar’s recovery against its peers limited gold’s gains. The dollar index rose to 89.97 by mid-morning, but pared some gains subsequently. It was last seen hovering around 89.80, up 0.3% from previous close.
Gold futures for February ended up $5.00 or about 0.3% at $1,913.60 an ounce.
Silver futures for March closed higher by $0.219 at $27.261 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $3.6960 per pound, gaining $0.0455.
Prospects of additional fiscal stimulus have increased now. The Electoral College today certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and the Democrats have won Georgia’s Senate runoff elections, giving Democrats control of the House, Senate and the White House.
In economic news, data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims in the U.S. edged down to 787,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level of 790,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 800,000 from the 787,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A report from the Commerce Department showed U.S. trade deficit widened to $68.1 billion in November from $63.1 billion in October. Economists had expected the deficit to widen to $65.2 billion.
Service sector activity in the U.S. unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in the month of December, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Thursday. The ISM said its services PMI rose to 57.2 in December from 55.9 in November.
Source: Read Full Article