By Barbara Kollmeyer and Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — Gold was holding under $1,400 an ounce on Thursday, but failing to benefit much from weakness in the dollar as investors took in comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and looked ahead to key U.S. jobs data on Friday. Gold for August delivery GCQ3 +0.08% rose $1.30, or 0.1%, to $1,399.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading was volatile as traders stayed glued to comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who was speaking at a press conference following a meeting in which the central bank kept key rates unchanged. The dollar got a brief boost before falling back after Draghi said the ECB had cut its forecasts for 2013 growth. It now sees a gross domestic contraction of 0.6% in 2013 versus a March forecast of a 0.5% drop. The ECB lifted its 2014 growth forecast slightly, to 1.1% from 1%. Watch a live blog of the news conference The ICE dollar index DXY -0.40% , a gauge that measures the greenback’s performance against six other currencies, fell to 82.308 from 82.561. “Despite some downside in the U.S. dollar, there has been no follow through in gold and it is not moving higher,� said Frederic Panizzutti, senior vice president at MKS Group. “We are trading at the middle level of the range $1,380 to $1,420 and not much going on. Perhaps a lack of very short-term visibility.� Some analysts said the gold market was especially keen on what Draghi would say about the possibility of negative-deposit rates. “The comments on the whole are being regarded by markets as ‘hawkish’ with Draghi not hinting on the use of any measures any time soon,� noted Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital. On Wednesday, gold saw sharp midday gains, with the August contract rising by as much as $13, as stocks sold off following weak U.S. private-employment data from ADP. But it soon pared those gains to settle just 0.1% higher. Data in the U.S. Thursday showed jobless claims fell 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 in the week ended June 1. Economists had expected claims to decline to 345,000. That data comes a day ahead of the all-important U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Friday’s U.S. May jobs report will be assessed for its likely effect on the Federal Reserve’s current bond-buying program. Concerns about physical demand also weighed on gold Thursday, according to a report from bullion dealer Sharps Pixley. Physical demand for gold has slowed in Asia, particularly in India after its government widened curbs on gold imports from banks to nominated agencies and trading houses, the report said. In other metals action, July silver SIN3 -0.17% slipped by 4 cents, or 0.2%, to $22.44 an ounce. Copper for July delivery HGN3 -1.63% fell 6 cents, or 1.6%, to $3.31 a pound. July platinum PLN3 +0.44% rose $7.30, or 0.5%, to $1,518.20 an ounce and September palladium PAU3 +0.63% added $4.75, or 0.6%, to $761.20 an ounce. PAU3 +0.63% Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid. Follow her on Twitter @MWBarbaraKollmeyer. Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter at @KitchenNews.

Source