Source: CBSMarketWatch.com
San Francisco— After climbing as much as $3 an ounce earlier in Thursday's session, gold futures closed with only a small gain.
Gold for December delivery closed at $373.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 10 cents. The contract, which reached a high at $375.70 earlier, lost more than $3 an ounce in Wednesday's session.
"Gold still looks comfortable trading within the $368 to $380 range for the moment but with further U.S. data out this week, further dollar gains are likely to see a real test of the $368 to $370 support level," James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, told clients in a note.
Favorable economic data offset concerns over sales growth in the technology sector, pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average off the day's lows and taking away some investor interest from gold, which is seen as a hedge against losses in the stock market.
U.S. consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in September, and the number of Americans seeking state unemployment benefits fell to an eight-month low for the second week in a row, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Meanwhile, output of the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose 0.4 percent in September, the Federal Reserve said. And manufacturing output rose 0.7 percent — the best monthly gain since April 2000.
Weakness in the dollar, despite the favorable economic data, kept gold, which is also seen as an alternative currency, on the plus side.
Palladium up at close
Elsewhere in the metals sector, palladium futures closed modestly higher after earlier touching at their lowest levels in over two months amid concerns of rising supplies.
December palladium closed at $193 an ounce, up $1.35, on Nymex. The contract fell more than $14 on Wednesday, and fell to lows earlier the session that the market hasn't seen since late August.
Palladium's sister metal, platinum, saw its January futures contract climb by $1.90 to $723.10 an ounce.
Silver prices closed lower after gold gave back the majority of its gains. December silver fell 2.5 cents to close at $4.922 an ounce.
And after rising nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, December copper eased back by 0.4 cent to 89.4 cents a pound.
On the supply end, gold inventories stood at 2.82 million troy ounces, unchanged as of late Wednesday.
Silver stocks totaled 109.1 million troy ounces after an upward adjustment of 100,476 troy ounces, and copper stood at 297,312 short tons, unchanged from the previous day.
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