WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - As investors parsed today's U.S. economic reports, gold prices held ground on Thursday, while the U.S. dollar index moved higher and geopolitical tensions continued to intensify.
Front Month Comex Gold for January delivery gained incrementally by 40 cents (or 0.01%) to $4,449.70 per troy ounce.
Front Month Comex Silver for January delivery tumbled by $2.4190 (or 3.14%) to $74.716 per troy ounce.
In the U.S. today, data released by Challenger, Gray and Christmas revealed that employers in the U.S. had announced 35,553 job cuts in December 2025 (down from 71,321 in November).
In 2025, there were 1,206,374 job cuts, a 58% increase over the previous year, with more job losses happening in the tech sector at 154,445.
Separately, the U.S. Labor Department revealed that initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 from the previous week to 208,000 for the week ending January 3, matching market expectations. The four-week average of jobless claims decreased to 211,000 from 219,000 in the previous week.
Continuing jobless claims increased to 1,914,000 for the week ending December 27, 2025, from 1,858,000 in the previous week.
Market participants are anticipating tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls data release, which plays a vital role in shaping the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
The U.S. dollar index was last seen trading at 98.93, up by 0.25 (or 0.25%) today.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently displaying that investors are betting on just an 11.6% chance of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve's upcoming January 27-28 meeting.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index and the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index are set to undergo the yearly five-day process of resetting their commodity indexes to reflect charges in commodities futures prices. Traders preferred a 'wait-and-watch' approach until the changes commence tomorrow.
U.S. legislators have formulated a bill which empowers U.S. President Donald Trump to penalize countries that buy Russian oil. The U.S. and the West have been accusing Russia of utilizing petrodollar revenue to continue its war with Ukraine.
Under this new bill, which goes for a vote by next week, China, India, Brazil and other countries that buy subsidized Russian oil could be slammed with 500% tariffs.
In the ongoing efforts to implement the U.S.-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.K. and France have announced readiness to deploy their troops at ground level in Ukraine after the ceasefire.
Russia, however, has warned that any Western troops in Ukraine would become 'legitimate combat targets'.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case about the legality of Trump's tariffs in the coming days.
Experts view that any ruling that sets aside Trump's powers to impose tariffs could be a setback to him politically and also serve a big blow to the U.S. economy. However, analysts estimate that Trump may use alternate statutes to re-impose the tariffs.
In Iran, the civil unrest that broke out in December against Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei administration's failure to tackle rising inflation and the drop in the Iranian Rial is expanding. Trump has already warned Iran against the use of violence to combat the protest and that the U.S. would intervene in such a case.
Following last Saturday's capture of the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife by the U.S. forces, Trump has asserted that the U.S. will run Venezuela and utilize its rich oil reserves for years.
Data from the People's Bank of China showed that the central bank continued its gold purchase for the fourteenth straight month with holdings amounting to 74.15 million fine troy ounces at the end of December compared to 74.12 million in November.
The value of these reserves has increased to $319.45 billion.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
