The price of gold was extending gains for a second session Thursday morning amid a generally weak US dollar, with traders awaiting cues from the weekly jobless claims data, due out later today.
Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged up $3.50 to $1,288.80 an ounce. Yesterday, gold snapped a six-day loss to end a shade higher, with the dollar trending lower against a basket of major currencies, even as investors continue to ponder over the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans to tone down its quantitative easing program, anticipating more cues from Fed officials during the week.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, moved down to 910.53 tons from 915.04 tons.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar continued to linger near a 2-month low versus the euro, the Swiss franc, sterling and the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's exports expanded 0.6 percent month-on-month in June, reversing last month's 2 percent fall, the Federal Statistical Office reported. Nonetheless, the rate of growth was weaker than the 0.9 percent rise forecast by economists. Meanwhile, imports fell 0.8 percent from a month ago, following a 1.4 percent rise. Economists had forecast imports to grow at a moderate pace of 0.5 percent in June.
Elsewhere, the prices of silver and platinum were ticking higher in morning deals.
From the U.S., the Labor Department will release its jobless claims report for the week ended August 03 at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect claims to have increased to 336,000 from 326,000 in the previous week
