2020.11.1218:33:00UTC+00Gold Futures Settle Higher On Safe-haven Appeal

Gold prices moved higher on Thursday on safe-haven demand as equities tumbled after worries about continued surge in new coronavirus cases in several countries raised concerns about growth.

The dollar was weak, but just marginally. After rising to 93.14, the dollar index eased to 92.78, but recovered to 92.99 gradually and was down just 0.05% from previous close.

Gold futures for December ended up $11.70 or about 0.6% at $1,873.70 an ounce.

Silver futures for December closed higher by $0.039 at $24.306 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.1450 per pound, gaining $0.0110.

In U.S. economic news, data released by the Labor Department showed a bigger than expected decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended November 7th.

The data said initial jobless claims fell to 709,000, a decrease of 48,000 from the previous week's revised level of 757,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 735,000 from the 751,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Another report from the Labor Department showed U.S. consumer price index came in unchanged in October after rising by 0.2% in September. Economists had expected another 0.2% uptick.

Despite optimism about coronavirus vaccine, sentiment has turned somewhat bearish once again in equity markets amid concerns the rapid surge in new cases and likely fresh lockdown measures might result in logistical challenges in distributing vaccines.