Gold price showed a muted reaction to the weekly U.S. jobless claims report

The gold price retreated $19.48 to $1,621.18 per ounce Thursday as weakness in gold continued this morning. The spot price of gold fell to as low as $1,606.90 in overnight trading, but pared its losses as the U.S. dollar turned lower against a basket of foreign currencies. Silver prices fell as well, by $0.56, or 1.8%, to $30.69 per ounce. The gold price showed a muted reaction to the weekly U.S. jobless claims report, which at 403,000 met the median estimate among economists.

Despite the heightened volatility in financial markets in recent weeks, the gold price has largely traded between $1,600 and $1,700, and remains 15.7% below its $1,922.20 all-time high. Commenting on the gold market, analysts at Commerzbank wrote in a note to clients that “The price of gold has not really profited from the growing uncertainty,” in recent weeks. Instead, the yellow metal has headed lower alongside assets viewed as relatively risky and has traded inversely to the U.S. dollar.

Dennis Gartman, the long-time commodities investor and publisher of The Gartman Letter, offered a similar but more cautious perspective on the gold price. “Given the severity of the break in mid-September, if the gold market was still technically healthy it should have bounced sharply back, regaining that which it had lost rather swiftly,” he wrote. “Taking twice or three times as long to regain only a third or so of what had been lost seemed at least awkward and at worst bearish,” Gartman contended.

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