2020.06.0419:05:00UTC+00Gold Futures Snap 4-day Losing Streak, Settle Notably Higher

Gold prices moved higher on Thursday, snapping a four-day losing streak, as the dollar eased and equities weakened in cautious trade ahead of monthly jobs data.

Gold was also supported by comments from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde that the euro area is headed for a sharp contraction this year.

The dollar index dropped to a low of 96.57, losing about 0.7% from previous close.

Gold futures for August ended down $22.60 or about 1.3% at $1,727.40 an ounce.

Silver futures for July declined $0.10 or about 0.6% at $18.061 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $2.4550 per pound, recording a small gain.

The Labor Department is scheduled to release its monthly jobs report on Friday. Economists expect employment to tumble by about 8 million jobs in May after plunging by 20.5 million jobs a month earlier. The unemployment rate is expected to rise to 19.8% from 14.7%.

According to the data released by the Labor Department this morning, the pace of decline in first-time claims for unemployment benefits has begun to stall a bit. The report said initial jobless claims tumbled to 1.877 million in the week ended May 30th, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week's revised level of 2.126 million.

Economists had expected jobless claims to slump to 1.800 million from the 2.123 million originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims pulled back further off the record high of 6.867 million set in the week ended March 28th, although the number of new claims since the coronavirus lockdowns now exceeds 42.6 million.

The ECB left its interest rate unchanged and announced additional stimulus to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The ECB announced that it will increase its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme by 600 billion euros. The bank announced plans to purchase 750 billion euros of government bonds back in March.