Investing.com - Gold prices edged higher in North American trading on Thursday, moving away from the prior session's two-week low as a long-awaited U.S. tax cut plan from the Trump Administration failed to inspire investors, who were disappointed by the lack of new details.
Comex gold futures tacked on $3.60, or around 0.3%, to $1,268.00 a troy ounce by 9:10AM ET (13:10GMT). Meanwhile, spot gold was at $1,266.20.
The yellow metal settled lower for the third session in a row on Wednesday after hitting its weakest level since April 11 at $1,260.70.
Also on the Comex, silver futures inched up 3.6 cents, or about 0.2% to $17.46 a troy ounce, after touching a six-week low of $17.35 in the prior session.
U.S. President Donald Trump proposed slashing tax rates for businesses to 15% from the current 35% for public corporations and 39.6% for small businesses, and on overseas corporate profits returned to the country.
Analysts said traders were disappointed by the lack of new details about the tax reform plan and on skepticism that any comprehensive tax changes will be approved by the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress began moving to extend Friday's budget deadline until May 5 and is expected to pass legislation allowing more time to finalize a spending deal to fund the federal government through September and avoid a shutdown.
Without the congressional extension or a longer-term funding bill, federal agencies will run out of money by midnight Friday.
On the data front, the U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims increased by 14,000 in the week ending April 22 to a four-week high of 257,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 245,000 last week.
Separately, the Commerce Department said that durable goods orders rose by 0.7% last month, missing expectations for a gain of 1.2%.
Core durable goods orders, which exclude volatile transportation items, fell 0.2% last month, compared to forecasts for a 0.4% increase.
In Europe, the European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record-low 0.0%, in line with forecasts.
The ECB also confirmed, as previously announced, that the size of its monthly quantitative easing program would continue at the new monthly pace of €60 billion until the end of December 2017, “or beyond, if necessary”.
Elsewhere in metals trading, platinum firmed at $950.10, while palladium jumped 1% to $812.95 an ounce.
Copper futures dipped 0.4 cents to $2.596 a pound.