(Kitco News) - The gold market is trading near session highs after the latest economic data showed sales of durable goods came in beow expectations in October.
The Commerce Department announced on Wednesday that U.S. durable goods orders rose 0.2% last month, following September’s unrevised decrease of -0.7%. The data was worse than expected as the consensus view of economists called for a 0.5% increase.
Core durable goods, which strip out the volatile transportation sector, rose 0.1% in October, below the consensus forecast for a 0.2% increase. September’s core print was unrevised at 0.5%.
Meanwhile, non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft manufacturing fell -0.2% in October, well below the expectation for a 0.5% increase and September’s 0.7% print.
The gold market rose close to session highs following the better-than-expected economic data, which was released at the same time as the second estimate of U.S. Q3 GDP and weekly jobless claims. Spot gold last traded at $2,651.67 per ounce, up 0.71% on the session.
