Gold price jump to session highs reversing losses as U.S. weekly jobless claims drops below 900K

New York (Jan 28)  The U.S. labor market continues to show its resilience as fewer American’s applied for initial unemployment benefits than economists were expecting and the number of initial jobless claims falls back below 900,000.

 Thursday the U.S. Labor Department said that weekly jobless claims fell by 67,000 to 847,000, down from the previous week’s revised estimate of 914,000 claims.

The latest labor market data beat economists’ estimates as consensus forecasts called for initial claims to be round 880,000.

Despite the better than expected data, The gold market is seeing some modest buying momentum. In a delayed reaction prices have jumped into positive territory. April gold futures last traded near session highs at $1,858 an ounce, up 0.5% on the day.

The four-week moving average for new claims – often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it flattens week-to-week volatility – rose to 868,000, an increase of 16,250 claims from the previous week’s revised level.

Continuing jobless claims, which represent the number of people already receiving benefits, were at 4.771 million during the week ending Jan. 16, down by 203,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

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