MW: Gold prices slowly climb on low prices, bargain buyers
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures Thursday extended their modest rise from the last session as low prices enticed Asian buyers from the sidelines.
Gold for August delivery gained $2.60, or 0.2%, to $1,163.00 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The drop in gold prices has been met with a re-emergence of physical demand," Barclays analyst Suki Cooper said in a note Thursday.
Factoring into sentiment, the weekly jobs report released Thursday said the number of people applying for initial unemployment benefits fell 11,000 to 457,000 in the week ended July 24. Read more about the jobs data here.
Meanwhile, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD 113.61, -0.17, -0.15%) , the largest exchange-traded fund backed by gold, had a sharp decline in holdings. Holdings in the fund dropped to 1,282 metric tons as of Wednesday, the latest day for which statistics are available, from 1,300 metric tons the previous day and some 20 metric tons from a record hit in late June.
