Moderate gains for bullions

Gold futures settle higher on Thursday for a fifth straight session

Bullion prices ended higher at Comex on Thursday, 15 October 2015. Gold futures settled higher on Thursday for a fifth straight session to score their highest settlement in about four months. Thursday's gain lifted gold futures into positive territory year to date. Speculation over an end to the metal's downtrend is growing as gold find support on the back of declines in the U.S. dollar over the past few weeks.

Gold futures for December delivery gained $7.70, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,187.50 an ounce on Comex. Year to date, prices are up 0.3% from the $1,184.10 settlement on 31 December 2014.

December silver added 4.7 cents, or 0.3%, to $16.164 an ounce.

The U.S. dollar index posted declines over the past two weeks, and was poised for a loss this week as expectations for a U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate hike this year fades. The index on Thursday, however, strengthened after data showing weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since the early 1970s.

Gold prices lost some early gains following a decline in U.S. jobless claims, reported Thursday morning, that are now at a 40-year low. The upbeat jobless claims report fell into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks that want to see the Federal Reserve raise interest rates sooner rather than later. The jobless claims report also sent the U.S. dollar index to solidly higher price levels on the day, which in turn helped to pressure the gold market. However, gold prices did rebound a bit as the session progressed.

The market place was uneventful overnight amid no major economic news coming out of Asia or Europe, and no geopolitical flare-ups.

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