2024.02.2218:15:00UTC+00Gold Futures Settle Lower As Investors Pick Up Riskier Assets

Gold futures settled lower on Thursday with investors seeking riskier assets such as equities after U.S. chip maker Nvidia reported strong fourth-quarter earnings and issued an upbeat revenue guidance.

The dollar's weakness helped limit the yellow metal's downside.

The dollar index, which traded weak in the European session, edged up marginally in early New York session, but dropped soon. The index was last seen at 103.95, down marginally from the previous close.

Gold futures for April ended down $3.60 or about 0.13% at $2,030.70 an ounce.

Silver futures for March ended lower by $0.090 at $22.784 an ounce, while Copper futures for March settled at $3.8970 per pound, gaining $0.0220.

In U.S. economic news, data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims fell to 201,000 in the week ended February 17th, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level of 213,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 218,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report showing a significant rebound in existing home sales in the month of January.

NAR said existing home sales jumped by 3.1% to an annual rate of 4.00 million in January after falling by 0.8% to a revised rate of 3.88 million in December.

Economists had expected existing home sales to surge by 5% to a rate of 3.97 million from the 3.78 million originally reported for the previous month.