WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures ended slightly higher with investors making cautious moves, weighing earnings reports and economic data from across the globe.
The earnings season got off to a solid start last week with several top notch U.S. companies coming out with strong results, but earnings reports over the past few days have been mixed, pushing investors into a wait and watch mode.
Disappointing data from Germany and South Korea rendered movements in stock markets a bit sluggish and this triggered the modest upmove in gold prices.
The dollar, which rose to 22-month high yesterday, extended its march up north and hit a near 2-year high today. The dollar index touched 98.32 before easing to 98.18, paring some gains.
Gold futures for June ended at $1,289.70, gaining $0.30 for the session.
Silver futures for May ended up $0.037, at $14.879 an ounce, while Copper futures for May settled at $2.8615 a dollar, netting a loss of $0.0485.
South Korea's gross domestic product contracted a seasonally adjusted 0.3% on quarter in the first quarter of 2019, the Bank of Korea said in Thursday's advanced estimate.
That follows the 1% increase in the three months prior.
On an annualized yearly basis, GDP climbed 1.8%, slowing from the 2.7% increase in the previous three months.
Real gross domestic income picked up 0.2% on quarter because of an improvement in terms of trade, the bank said.
In U.S. economic news today, data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims climbed to 230,000, an increase of 37,000 from the previous week's revised level of 193,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 200,000 from the 192,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The bigger than expected increase came after the number of jobless claims in the previous week represented their lowest level since hitting 182,000 in September of 1969.
Meanwhile, a report from the Commerce Department said durable goods orders surged up by 2.7% in March after tumbling by a revised 1.1% in February.
A significant rebound in orders for transportation equipment contributed to the surge in durable goods orders in the month. Economists had expected durable goods orders to climb by 0.8% compared to the 1.6% slump originally reported for the previous month.
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