Gold Prices Fail to Break Above $1,600 an Ounce Level; Silver Prices Slip

Gold prices failed to break through the resistance of $1,600 level and hovered around $1590 mark on Thursday as demand for safe haven bets petered out amid improving U.S. macroeconomic environment, especially the labor market. Silver prices, meanwhile, edged lower on Thursday.

Strength in the U.S. dollar is also weighing on prices. The U.S. dollar Index drifted around its seven month high on Thursday, making dollar-dominated commodities, including gold more expensive for holders of other currencies.

At last check, U.S. gold futures for April delivery gained 0.16% to $1,590.90 while spot gold edged up 0.27% to $1,591.56 an ounce.

Earlier on Thursday, a data provided by the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims fell unexpectedly by 10,000 to seasonally adjusted 332,000 for the week ended March 9 against economists’ expectation for a rise to 350,000. The unexpectedly strong job data has once again underpinned the fact that the U.S. economy is finally rebounding.

Just last week, non-farm payrolls data for February showed that the U.S. economy added more than expected new jobs.

In this backdrop, investors are shunning safe haven bets in favor of riskier assets such as equities. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones was on the course to extend its winning streak for the record 10th session, stretching its all-time-high levels.

“Current dollar strength is reflective of a better economic environment in the United States and gold is likely to keep coming off as investors move to risk-on strategy and away from securities assets,” said  SP Angel analyst John Meyer, according to Reuters.

Silver futures dropped 0.58% to $28.79 an ounce.

In late trading on Thursday, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.21% to $27.88, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was down 0.56% to $39.07, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was up 0.71% to $53.56.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.