ND: Gold Closes Slightly Lower, Finishes Down For Fourth Straight Day
The price of gold finished slightly lower on Thursday, finishing in the red for a fourth straight session. The loss was the eighth in 10 sessions this year for the precious metal.
Gold for February delivery finished at $807.30, down $1.50 on the session. The metal hit as low as $801.50, its lowest mark since Dec. 12. However, in after hours trading, gold surged above $815 an ounce.
The dollar was generally stronger versus other major currencies on Thursday as traders considered several economic reports and another interest rate cut by the European Central Bank. Gold usually moves opposite the dollar because of its hedge appeal.
The dollar extended its monthly highs versus the euro, rising to 1.3025 before leveling off. The buck firmed up versus the yen and was stable versus the British pound.
To shore up the economy from deepening recession, the European Central Bank trimmed its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2% in its first Governing Council meeting of the year. The reduction was in-line with the expectations of economists. This took the rate to the level last seen in June 2003.
In economic news in the U.S., Labor Department report showed that jobless claims rose to 524,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 470,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to rise to 501,000 from the 467,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate Department of Labor report showed that the producer price index fell 1.9 percent in December following an unrevised 2.2 percent decrease in the previous month. The decrease by the index came in line with economists' expectations.
Excluding food and energy prices, the core producer price index edged up 0.2 percent in December after rising 0.1 percent in November. Economists had been expecting core prices to show another 0.1 percent increase.
On the housing front, there was a spike in the number of foreclosures in the month of December, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. The increase follows a decline in November, and despite the 17 percent boost last month the foreclosure rate dropped 4 percent from the previous quarter.
Gold finished Wednesday at at $808.80 an ounce, down $11.90 on the day and touched as low as $807. The precious metal has closed in the red seven times in nine sessions this year and has lost 8.5% in the slide.
