Gold slips lower but remains near 2-week high-Sap Forex24

Gold prices slipped lower on Friday, but still remained close to a two-week high as the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting continued to weigh on the greenback.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery were down 0.26% at $1,353.65, not far from the two-week high of $1,355.75 hit overnight.

The December contract ended Thursday’s session 0.62% higher at $1,357.20 an ounce.

Futures were likely to find support at $1,338.60, Wednesday’s low and resistance at $1,360.80, the high from August 5.

Gold slips lower but remains near 2-week high-Sap Forex24

The precious metal lost some ground after data on Thursday showed that initial jobless claims decreased by 4,000 to 262,000 last week, compared to expectations for a 1,000 decline to 265,000.

Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index rose to 2.0 this month from July’s reading of minus 2.9, in line with the consensus estimate.

But sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after the minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting released on Wednesday showed that policymakers were still divided over the need to raise interest rates this year.

Gold is sensitive to moves in U.S. rates. A gradual path to higher rates is seen as less of a threat to gold prices than a swift series of increases.

Elsewhere in metals trading, silver futures for September delivery dropped 0.52% at $19.638 a troy ounce, while copper futures for September delivery rose 0.21% to $2.172 a pound.