Spot gold bounced back to the $1,800 a troy ounce on Thursday, close to a 6-week high of $1,807 hit earlier this week, as traders digested a batch of economic data and interest rate decisions from major central banks.
The US economy grew an annualized 2% in Q3, missing market expectations by 0.7 percentage points and slowing sharply from the 6.7% jump of the previous quarter, as high inflation curbed demand and soaring COVID-19 infections among the unvaccinated worsened labor shortages.
On the other hand, initial jobless claims fell more than expected to a seasonally adjusted 281 thousand last week, a new pandemic low.
Elsewhere, the European Central Bank pledged to continue with the pandemic-era asset purchases program until at least March 2022 and left its rate hike outlook unchanged, even as the Eurozone economy is faced with multi-year high inflation rates.