2021.04.0819:04:00UTC+00Gold Futures Settle At 6-week High

Gold prices moved higher on Thursday and lifted the most active gold futures contract to a six-week high, thanks to a weak dollar and on expectations inflation will rise in coming months.

The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments that the bank would like to see actual evidence of economic growth before considering any policy tightening. He also reiterated expectations that an anticipated rise in inflation this year would be temporary.

The dollar index drifted down to 92.00, losing more than 0.5%. The index was last seen at 92.07, down by about 0.4%.

The drop in the yield from U.S. 10-year Treasury Note contributed as well to gold's uptick.

Gold futures for June ended up $16.60 or almost 1% at $1,758.20 an ounce, the highest settlement since February 25.

Silver futures for May gained 1.3% to settle at $25.590 an ounce, while Copper futures for May ended up nearly 1% at $4.10 per pound.

Data released by the Labor Department this morning showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased in the week ended April 3rd, edging up to 744,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level of 728,000.

Jobless claims rose for the second straight week after falling to a one-year low of 658,000 in the week ended March 20th.

The continued increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 680,000 from the 719,000 originally reported for the previous month.