2018.08.2314:15:00UTC+00Gold Snaps 4-day Winning Streak, Settles Lower

After four successive days of gains, gold futures drifted lower on Thursday as the U.S. dollar rebounded and trimmed some recent losses.

The dollar was back in demand after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting indicated an interest rate hike in September.

The dollar index snapped a six-session losing streak and was trading around 95.50, up 0.5% over previous close.

Gold futures for December ended down $9.30, or 0.8%, at $1,194.00 an ounce. On Wednesday, gold futures ended up $3.30, or 0.3%, at $1,203.30 an ounce.

Silver futures for September ended lower by $0.208, at $14.542 an ounce.

Copper futures for September settled at $2.6545 per pound, down $0.0190 from previous close.

Markets now look ahead to the central bank's symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the focus is on the topic of "Changing market structure and implications for monetary policy." This will be the first symposium for Jerome Powell as the Federal Reserve Chief.

U.S. President Donald Trump Trump criticized Powell's approach on interest rates quite often and said last week that he was "not thrilled" at Powell's decision to raise interest rates.

In U.S. economic news, data released by the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims edged down to 210,000 in the week ended August 18th, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 212,000. The report said Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a separate report that showed new home sales dropped by 1.7% to an annual rate of 627,000 in July after tumbling by 2.4% to a revised rate of 638,000 in June. Economists had expected new home sales to climb by 2.2%.