(Kitco News) - The gold market is pulling back after the latest economic data showed sales of durable goods beat expectations with a flat reading in August.
The Commerce Department announced on Thursday that U.S. durable goods orders were flat at 0.0% last month, following July’s revised increase of 9.8%. The data was better than expected as the consensus view of economists called for a 2.6% drop.
Core durable goods, which strip out the volatile transportation sector, rose 0.5% in August, above the consensus forecast for a 0.1% increase. July’s core print was revised to -0.1%.
Meanwhile, non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft manufacturing rose 0.2% in August, above the expectation for a flat reading and July’s -0.2% print.
The gold market is coming off its earlier highs following the better-than-expected economic data, which was released at the same time as final U.S. Q2 GDP and weekly jobless claims. Spot gold last traded at $2,670.81 per ounce, up 0.52% on the session.
