Gold Prices Moving To The Upside As Yields Pull Back Sharply

(RTTNews) - After ending the previous session slightly higher but well off its best levels, the price of gold has seen some further upside during trading on Thursday.

Gold for December delivery has risen $16.40 or 0.4 percent to $4,203.10 an ounce after inching up $7 or 0.2 percent to $4,186.70 an ounce during Wednesday's session.

The increase in the price of gold comes as treasury yields have come under pressure over the course of the session.

The yield on the benchmark ten-year note is plunging by about 8 basis points after climbing to its highest levels since April 2002 earlier in the day.

However, traders seem reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists currently employment to increase by 90,000 jobs in September after jumping by 162,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 4.1 percent.

A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report this morning showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged slightly lower in the week ended September 26th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims slipped to 197,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 198,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 200,000 from the 197,000 originally reported for the previous week.