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MTECHTIPS:-Gold falls sharply amid uptick in U.S. jobless claims, China rally
Gold futures fell sharply on Thursday amid a moderately stronger dollar, as investors reacted to a slight increase in weekly U.S. jobless claims and a bounce among equities in China. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for February delivery traded between $1,076.50 and $1,095.30 an ounce before settling at 1,077.60, down 9.80 or 0.90% on the session. After surging by more than 1.4% last Thursday, gold has closed lower in four of the last five sessions. Gold dropped to its lowest level in more than a week. While gold has been trading slightly below last week’s nine-week high around $1,110 an ounce, the precious metal is still up considerably since falling to a fresh six-year low near $1,045 in early-December. Gold likely gained support at $1,046.20, the low from December 3 and was met with resistance at $1,162.00, the high from Oct. 29. In overnight trading, the Shanghai Composite Index briefly fell to its lowest level since the start of this year’s rout in Chinese equities before rebounding to close at 3,007.65, up 2% on the session. The Shenzhen Composite Index, meanwhile, surged 3.81% to finish Thursday’s session at 1,859.371. Earlier on Thursday, a group of 28 small-cap listed companies helped stabilize the market by pledging not to sell shares for a period of at least six months. Chinese stocks have plunged at the start of the year since the People’s Bank of China devalued the yuan by nearly 2% last week in an effort to stimulate its flagging economy by boosting exports. China is the world’s largest producer of gold and the second-largest consumer of the precious metal behind India.
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