Investing.com -- Gold futures surged more than $20 an ounce as weak economic data weighed on the dollar, ahead of Janet Yellen's first public appearance on Thursday night since the Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates at its current near-zero level last week.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for December delivery soared as high as $1,156.00 a troy ounce, its highest level since late-August, before closing at $1,152.80, up $21.30 or 1.88%. The precious metal also enjoyed its strongest one-day move in more than a month. Gold is now up approximately 2% since the start of September.
Gold likely gained support at $1,098.20, the low from Sept. 11 and was met with resistance at $1,169.00, the high from Aug. 24.
On Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Commerce said new orders for manufactured durable goods in August decreased $4.8 billion or 2.0% to $236.3 billion. Following two months of gains, analysts expected durable good orders to fall by 2% last month. Weakness in aircraft orders weighed heavily on the reading, plummeting by 12% in August. When transportation orders were discounted, durable goods remained unchanged from its July level.
Separately, the Kansas City Fed said manufacturing activity in its region for September fell at a comparable rate to the previous month, underscoring export weakness from a stronger dollar and lower production in the energy sector due to lower crude prices. The Kansas City Manufacturing Index produced a reading of minus-8 in September, improving only slightly from an August reading of minus-9.
Initial jobless claims, however, remained near record-lows after ticking up by only 3,000 for the week ending on Sept. 12 to 267,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall in a range between 269,000 to 280,000. Continuing claims, meanwhile, fell to 2.242 million, down by 25,000 in comparison with the sample week from August. The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to keep a close eye on slack in the labor market when the September national employment report is released in two weeks. While average hourly earnings in August inched up by 0.3%, real or inflation-adjusted wages remain near 2009 levels during the recession.
Yellen, the Fed chair, is scheduled to speak on inflation dynamics and monetary policy during an appearance at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Thursday after the close of trading. Last week, the FOMC held its benchmark Federal Funds Rate at its current level between zero and 0.25% for the 55th consecutive meeting. Nearly a decade has passed since the Fed since hiked short-term interest rates. Gold, which is not attached to interest rates or dividends, struggles to compete with high-yield bearing assets in periods of rising rates.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, fell more than 0.5% to an intraday low of 95.58. On Wednesday, the index surged above 96.70, reaching its highest level in more than a month.
Silver for December delivery rose 0.341 or 2.31% to 15.130 an ounce.
Copper for December delivery gained 0.005 or 0.23% to 2.300 a pound.