By Laura Mandaro
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures deepened losses in midmorning trading Thursday to slide below the key $1,190 level, leaving earlier gains behind. Gold for August delivery fell $9.3, or 0.8%, to $1,189.6 an ounce on the Comex division. The drop came after the Labor Department reported the number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits declined by 21,000 in the latest week to 454,000. The report offered an encouraging sign of economic recovery, luring investors away from gold, often held as safety measures in uncertain economic times.
