Date: Friday 18 Jun 2010
Gold surged 1.5% to a new record high Thursday, buoyed by poor US data and early weakness on Wall Street, which sent investors scurrying to the safety and profitability of the yellow metal.The August futures contract rose $81.20 to $1,248.70 an ounce in New York, but had traded as high as $1,252.50. Previous bests were $1,245.60 for the close and $1,246.50 intraday.
Expectations are that US interest rates will remain low for quite some time yet following et latest crop of economic data out of America.
The Labor Department announced weekly jobless claims grew by 12,000 to 472,000, against expectations of 450,000 claims. The week before, 452,000 claims were made.
The Consumer Price Index slipped 0.2% in May, with core CPI, excluding energy and food prices, rose 0.1%, while the Philadelphia Fed index fell to 8 in June from 21.4 in May as activity slowed far more than expected.Oil prices eased – the July contract fell 88 cents to $76.79 a barrel - as the lame data raised concerns about the strength of demand for the black stuff.
The most active August contract was off 68 cents at $78.04.
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