NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold prices Thursday were popping ahead of Friday's U.S. unemployment number as trading thinned out before the long weekend.
Gold for June delivery was rising $10.60 to $1,125.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices Thursday have traded as high as $1,119.60 and as low as $1,112.30. The U.S. dollar index was slightly lower by 0.04% to $81.04. Gold's spot price was rising over $11, according to Kitco's gold index.
Gold prices continued their rally from Wednesday despite uncertainty over Friday's U.S. unemployment number. The Labor Department said initial weekly jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 439,000. Although this was in line with expectations, Wednesday's Automatic Data Processing report indicated that the private sector lost 23,000 jobs in March rather than adding. Many economists are expecting unemployment to improve this month.
A disappointing number could temper risk appetite, which would hurt commodities. But the news could also prompt the Federal Reserve to keep rates low for an extended period of time pressuring the dollar and supporting gold prices. For now it seems like gold is intent on rallying as markets continue to thin out ahead of Friday's holiday.
Gold prices are battling their $1,080 and $1,130 range with many analysts looking at $1,150 to $1,160 as the key resistance area. "Risk assets are on the rise ... [and] the U.S. dollar is actually resilient at $81 on the index [and] gold ... [is still] rising," says Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com. "It's interesting to note that yesterday's ADP jobs data sparked a rally in gold. Today's better-than-expected jobless claims filings also sparked a gold rally ... I'm not saying this is an April Fool's rally here ... but the exaggerated moves ... are indicative of the fact that this is few players pushing around sufficient sums of money [making] for outsized moves."
Silver prices were up 40 cents to $17.93 while copper was rising 4 cents to $3.59. Platinum supply worries triggered by Lonmin closing one of its furnaces were still boosting the metal $18 to $1,665.
