Gold settles higher as markets assess US economic outlook

Gold bars

Gold prices posted slight gains on Thursday, in a muted performance after the release of US jobless claims and GDP data, which fueled concerns the Federal Reserve may slow its pace of interest rate cuts.

Gold futures (December delivery) rose around 0.10%, or $3, to $3,771.10 per ounce.

Jobless claims fell by 14,000 to 218,000 last week, the lowest since mid-July, defying expectations of an increase, data from the US Department of Labor showed.

Separately, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that US real GDP grew 3.8% year-on-year in Q2, up 0.5 percentage points from the previous estimate for the same period.

Taken together, the data strengthened investor confidence in the outlook for the world’s largest economy — including its labor market — which could dissuade the Federal Reserve from implementing steep borrowing cost cuts.