Gold was up $42.70 per ounce in trading today.
The New York spot price was $1,320.20
Also on Wall Street, investors remained in a record-setting mood Thursday.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at an all-time high for the second time in two days and notched its fifth gain in five days.
The Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq composite ended mixed after drifting between small gains and losses for much of the day.
The three key stock indexes all opened higher, holding on to tiny gains in premarket trading as investors sized up the latest data on unemployment aid applications and an index of economic indicators.
The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to 312,000, the lowest in more than six years. The Conference Board added to the good news, saying its index of leading indicators rose 0.5 percent in May from the previous month.
The market began to drift lower, however, as investors looked beyond the economic data and focused instead on a mixed bag of corporate earnings from companies such as Kroger, Rite Aid and Pier 1 Imports.
By midday, stocks veered into the red, where they remained until halfway through the final hour of trading, when a late push elevated the S&P 500 and Dow barely higher on the day.
The S&P 500 index rose 2.50 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,959.48. That’s slightly above the prior day’s record close of 1,956.98. The last time the index closed at a record high was June 9th.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 14.84 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,921.46. The Nasdaq composite slipped 3.51 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,359.33.
The three indexes are all up for the year.
The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent in the January-March quarter, the victim of a severe winter which slowed business activity in a number of areas. Many analysts anticipate growth rebounded strongly in the April-June quarter.
The market will get a sense of that next month, when the next round of corporate earnings begins. Until then, the next key market mover will likely be the June jobs report, due out the first week of July.
Bond prices fell, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 2.63 percent from 2.59 percent late Wednesday.
Source: Elko Daily Free Press