Gold Closes Modestly Lower Following Choppy Trading Day

(RTTNews) - Following the surge seen in the previous session, gold prices turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Thursday.

Gold for December delivery slipped $8 or 0.2 percent to $4,339.50 an ounce after jumping $43 or 1.0 percent to a new record closing high of $4,347.50 an ounce during Wednesday's session.

The modest pullback on the day came amid an uptick in the value of the U.S. dollar, with the U.S. dollar index inching up by 0.1 percent.

The volatility on the day came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department unexpectedly showing a slowdown in the annual rate of consumer price growth.

The Labor Department said consumer prices in November were up by 2.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago.

The year-over-year price growth in November reflects a notable slowdown from the 3.0 percent surge in September. Economists had expected the annual rate of growth to tick up to 3.1 percent.

The annual rate of growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also slowed to 2.6 percent in November from 3.0 percent in September. The pace of core price growth was expected to remain unchanged.

The tamer-than-expected inflation data has led to renewed confidence the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates next year.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits declined roughly in line with economist estimates in the week ended December 13th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 224,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 237,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 225,000 from the 236,000 originally reported for the previous week.