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Gold prices rise as U.S. weekly jobless claims increase to 217K
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(Kitco News) - The gold market is seeing healthy momentum as the U.S. labor market appears to be losing some momentum as the number of American workers applying for first-time unemployment benefits rises more than expected.
Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said that weekly jobless claims rose to 217,000 during the week ending Oct. 28, up by 5,000 claims from the previous week’s revised level of 210,000.
The latest labor market data was slightly hotter than expected. According to consensus forecasts, economists were expecting to see jobless claims hold at around 210,000.
The gold market continues to hold below $2,000 an ounce; however, it has seen a small jump in initial reaction to the latest labor market data. December gold futures last traded at $1,996.70 an ounce, up 0.46% on the day.
Not only are the number of initial claims rising but laid off workers are having some difficulties finding new jobs. The number of continuing claims, which are reported with one week delay, increased to 1.818 million, for the week ending Oct. 21. Continuing claims are up 35,000 from the previous week’s revised level.
