RTN:Gold Little Changed Near $1,525 Amid Mixed Dollar
(RTTNews) - The price of gold was flat Thursday morning as the U.S. dollar was mixed ahead of a slew of economic reports.
Gold for August delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged up $0.20 to $1,526.40 an ounce. Yesterday, gold ended marginally higher as the escalating Greece crisis and U.S. inflation offset a stronger dollar.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,200.05 tons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar continued to pare recent losses versus the euro and sterling, while ticking lower against the Swiss franc and the yen.
Euro zone annual inflation slowed in May, after rising in the previous month. Annual inflation eased to 2.7 percent from April's 2.8 percent, in line with the preliminary estimate, Eurostat said. Economists were expecting the preliminary figure to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, employment in euro area recorded no growth compared to the previous quarter after adjusting to seasonal variations, but advanced 0.1 percent from last year.
Elsewhere, retail sales in the U.K. declined in May at the sharpest pace since January 2010, as consumers cut back their spending mainly due to increasing fuel prices and uncertainty over job prospects and pay.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum were ticking lower in morning deals.
In economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department will release its housing starts report at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a rebound in starts to 547,000 in May following a 10.6 percent month-over-month drop to 585,000 in the previous month.
Simultaneously, the Labor Department will come out with its report on jobless claims report for the week ended June 11. Economists expect claims to decline to 420,000 from the 427,000 reported in the prior week.
Later during the session, the results of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing survey are due out. Economists expect the diffusion index of current activity to show a reading of 9 for June, an increase from 3.9 in May.
