(Kitco News) - The gold market is holding on to its record gains as the U.S. labor market continues to stabilize.
Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said that weekly jobless claims dropped by 2,000 to 210,000 during the week ending March 16, down from the previous week's revised estimate of 212,000 claims.
The drop was relatively in line with economist expectations.
The gold market is not seeing much reaction to the latest employment data, as the market continues to digest Wednesday’s Federal Reserve monetary policy decision. While down slightly from its overnight highs, gold is seeing robust bullish momentum. Spot gold last traded at $2,206.55 an ounce, up nearly 1% on the day.
Overnight, the precious metal rallied to a new all-time high above $2,220 an ounce as markets look for the U.S. central bank to ease interest rates in June. Although the Fed kept rates unchanged Wednesday, it continued to signal the potential for three cate cuts this year.
The four-week moving average for new claims – often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it flattens week-to-week volatility – rose slightly to 211,250, from the previous week's revised average of 208,750.
Continuing jobless claims, which represent the number of people already receiving benefits, were at 1.807 million during the week ending March 9, 4,000 claims above the previous week's revised level of 1.803 million.
