Gold Steady as US Jobless Rise

Gold maintained its overnight gains after the government said Thursday that initial weekly U.S. jobless claims rose by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 last week.

Consensus expectations compiled by various news organizations called for initial claims to be around 244,000 to 246,000 in the week to Saturday. The government left the prior week’s tally unrevised at 234,000 claims.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims – often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it smoothens out week-to-week volatility – was up by 500 claims to 245,250.

Continuing jobless claims, the number of people already receiving benefits and reported with a one-week delay, decreased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2,076,000 during the week ending Feb. 4, the government said. The four-week moving average rose by 4,250 to 2,080,250.

via Kitco

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza