“Gold was pressured by better U.S. fundamentals this morning, pulling some risk assets back into equities and slightly away from gold,” said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities.
Gold futures for April delivery GCJ2 -0.33% fell $12.10, or 0.7%, to $1,716 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, erasing a 0.6% gain from Wednesday. It touched a low of $1,706.70 an ounce earlier.
Gold prices traded at session lows immediately after data from the Labor Department showed that the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 last week to seasonally adjusted 348,000. Read more on jobless claims.
New construction of U.S. houses rose in January by 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 699,000, an estimate from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a rate of 688,000. Read more on housing starts.
The Labor Department also reported Thursday that the producer price index climbed less than expected. Read about PPI.
Against that backdrop, the U.S. equity market “focused on stock fundamentals and the growth story,” said Hastings.
Strength in the U.S. dollar, which gained ground against the euro on growing concerns about the fate of Greece’s bailout package, also contributed to the decline in dollar-denominated gold.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.14% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, rose to 79.804 from 79.641 late Wednesday. Read more on currencies.
The uncertainty over Greece’s future in the euro zone remained high after European Union officials Wednesday reportedly raised the prospect of delaying the country’s next tranche of aid until after expected elections in April.
Most other metals moved lower, with palladium bucking the trend.
Silver for March delivery SIH2 -0.58% lost 48 cents, or 1.4%, to $32.93 an ounce, and copper for the same month HGH2 -0.61% shed 5 cents, or 1.4%, to $3.75 a pound. For the latest updates on the stock market, visit Stock Market Today For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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