WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Adding to the gains from yesterday's session, gold prices have moved higher on Thursday as market participants attempted to gauge the U.S. plans on Iran while inflation worries remained minimum for the second day.
Front Month Comex Gold for December delivery has edged higher by $36.80 (or 0.90%) to $4,109.80 per troy ounce.
Front Month Comex Silver for December delivery has inched higher by $0.053 (or 0.10%) to $52.335 per troy ounce.
Traders are focusing on the moves by the U.S. administration on the Iran war with several of them betting on the U.S. winding up the military operations, seeking to resolve the crisis through mediation.
The U.S. mid-term election results announced yesterday revealed a landslide victory for Democrats in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
Democrats gained 54 seats in the Senate and 225 seats in the House of Representatives.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Iran was 'a piece of it', conceding that partly it led to the widespread poor performance of the ruling party.
Through a post via X platform, U.S. Vice President JD Vance stated that the war with Iran had primarily caused the setback for Republican party.
Vance also added that the regime should focus on inflation, the U.S. cost of living as well as its relations with Israel in order to bring back the Republican voters who drifted to Democrats.
Traders are of the view that Trump could now seek a reconciliatory approach with Iran rather than going on a full-scale assault against Iran.
A renewed military option could continue to keep the oil and energy prices high in the U.S. for an extended time.
On the other hand, Iranians could increase their demands against the backdrop of Trump's political loss before striking a deal.
The possibility of enforcing the naval blockade along with economic sanctions to pressure Iran is also a choice for Trump though the results for this strategy could take months before showing up.
Trump could also militarily confront Iran before demitting office to finish what he started.
With a majority of economists predicting that a war with Iran in the near-term could be less likely, yesterday and today inflation concerns moved lower.
Iran announced yesterday that its forces are on high alert, and warned that its response in the event of an attack will not be bound by geographical restrictions, hinting that if a war erupts, it could be more expansive than before.
Not wanting to take the U.S. lightly, amid escalation concerns, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held separate calls with his counterparts in Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Today, the U.S. dollar index was last seen trading at 101.43, up by 0.13 (or 0.13%) today.
According to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool, currently investors are betting on a 68.10% chance of a 25-basis-point interest rate-hike at the upcoming meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve on December 8-9 while the odds on rates being held at the current level stand at 31.90%.
Data provided by Challenger, Gray, and Christmas Inc. revealed that US-based employers instituted 43,994 job cuts in October, up 2.00% from 43,281 cuts in September, but down 71.00% from last year.
On the economic front, data from the U.S. Labor Department showed that for the week ending October 31, the initial claims for unemployment benefits decreased by 6,000 to 189,000 from the previous period, below market expectations of 196,000 and down from a revised 195,000 of the previous week.
Moving in the opposite direction, for the week ending October 24, the continuing jobless claims increased to 1,718,000 from 1,695,000 of the previous week and compared to forecasts of 1,710,000 thousand.
Analysts state that though the initial claims indicate that layoff pressure is restricted and the U.S. Federal Reserve need not rush for a rate cut, the increase in continuing claims could prompt the central bank to decide contrarily. Hence, they are awaiting further data inputs from the upcoming days.
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