(Kitco News) - Gold prices ended the U.S. day session modestly lower Thursday and gave up early tepid gains. Prices closed at a seven-week low close today. Price action earlier saw some short covering in the futures market and bargain hunters buying the dip in the cash market. However, gold prices started eroding when crude oil prices backed down from their session highs. June Comex gold was last down $3.30 an ounce at $1,220.40. July Comex silver was last up $0.084 at $16.345 an ounce.

Most world stock markets were higher overnight. U.S. stock indexes were narrowly mixed in afternoon trading. Higher crude oil prices are partly responsible for the recent rallies in world stock markets. Brent and Nymex crude oil futures pushed above the key $50-a-barrel level Thursday, on an intra-day basis. This week’s strength in world equity markets has been a bearish element for the safe-haven gold market.

The other key “outside market” on Thursday saw the U.S. dollar index trading weaker. Still, the USDX is in a three-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. The recent strength in the greenback has also been negative for the precious metals markets.

U.S. economic data released Thursday included the weekly jobless claims report and durable goods orders. Overall, the data was deemed upbeat, which falls into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks, who favor an interest rate hike sooner rather than later.

Courtesy: Kitco News