WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures ended lower on Thursday, extending losses from previous session, as the commodity's safe-haven demand dimmed amid expectations of the U.S. drug regulator giving its nod to a coronavirus vaccine.
The dollar's weakness limited gold's decline. The dollar index, which slipped to a low of 90.67 around mid-morning, recovered some ground, but was still languishing in negative territory at 90.88, down more than 0.2% from previous close.
Gold futures for February ended down $1.10 or almost 0.1% at $1,837.40 an ounce.
Silver futures for March closed higher by $0.104 at $24.094 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $3.5760 per pound, gaining $0.0625.
On the stimulus front, the House has passed a one-week funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, although lawmakers remain at a stalemate over a coronavirus relief bill.
The impasse partly reflects a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over including aid for state and local governments.
In economic releases, data from the Labor Department showed a significant increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 5th.
The report said initial jobless claims jumped to 853,000, an increase of 137,000 from the previous week's revised level of 716,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 725,000 from the 712,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the much bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 873,000 in the week ended September 19th.
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed a modest increase in U.S. consumer prices in the month of November.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.2% in November after coming in unchanged in October. The uptick in consumer prices matched economist estimates.
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