Gold prices rally after jobless claims data, silver climbs more than 2%

San Francisco (Dec 27)  Gold prices rallied to a one-week high in post-Christmas Day trade on Thursday, after data showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more-than-expected.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery traded at USD1,212.40 a troy ounce during U.S. morning trade, up 0.75%. Gold prices rose to a session high of USD1,213.90 a troy ounce earlier, the strongest level since December 19.

Futures were likely to find support at USD1,192.20 a troy ounce, the low from December 23 and resistance at USD1,226.00, the high from December 19.

The February contract settled 0.53% higher on Tuesday to end at USD1,203.30 a troy ounce.

Meanwhile, silver for March delivery surged 2.1% to trade at USD19.88 a troy ounce, the highest since December 18.

There was no floor or electronic trading on Wednesday because of the Christmas holiday. Volumes were expected to remain light on Thursday, with year-end positioning and profit-taking driving flows.

Gold and silver prices rose to the highest levels of the session after the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending December 21 declined by 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 338,000.

Analysts had expected U.S. jobless claims to fall by 35,000 to 345,000 last week from the previous week's revised total of 380,000, which was the highest since March.

Continuing jobless claims in the week ended December 14 rose to 2.923 million from 2.877 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.827 million.

Gold is down approximately 29% this year, on track for its first yearly loss in 13 years and the worst since 1981, as solid U.S. economic data underlined expectations the Fed will begin curbing stimulus, while silver prices dropped almost 35%.