(RTTNews) - The price of gold was flat Thursday morning as the U.S. dollar was steady versus a basket of currencies ahead of weekly jobless claims data.
Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged up $0.10 to $1,616.10 an ounce. Yesterday, gold ended higher on continued hopes of monetary stimulus and some positive productivity data from the U.S. While the dollar strengthened, the euro continued to struggle after some weak economic data out of Germany, which also triggered hopes of further quantitative easing to push economic growth and prop up the euro zone.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, were unchanged at 1,254.94 tons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar moved back to a weekly high versus the euro, while trading higher against sterling. The buck continued to pare losses versus the Swiss franc, while moving lower against the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, U.K.'s visible trade gap widened to GBP 10.1 billion in June from GBP 8.4 billion in May, the Office for National Statistics said. The expected level of deficit was GBP 8.7 billion.
The price of silver was flat, while platinum was ticking higher in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Commerce Department will release its trade gap data for June at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate that the trade gap narrowed to $47.5 billion in the month from a deficit of $48.7 billion in the previous month.
Simultaneously, the Labor Department will release its jobless claims report for the week ended August 04. Economists expect claims to edge up to 367,000 in the recent reporting week from 365,000 in the previous week.
