Despite struggling for direction, gold trades lower week-to-week

This week's gold price has been a bit sketchy, seeingsawing between gains and losses on Thursday, but it has stayed on track to post a loss for the week despite the gains on Wednesday.

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In the latest trading session on Wednesday, the price of the metal dropped for the third time in four sessions. In recent times, there has been an increase in risk-aversion, which has led to gains in the U.S. stock market and weakened the appeal of gold as a safe-haven investment.

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A look at the price action

• There was a 90 cent decline in the most active June gold contract, GC00, 1.12%, GCM23, 0.23%, when it slipped from $1,993.40 per ounce to $1,983.60 per ounce on Comex, with prices fluctuating between $1,993.40 and $1,971.60 per ounce.

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• There has been a 16.9 cent increase, 0.7 percent, in the price of silver for May delivery SI00, 1.06% SIK23, 1.04%, to $23.625 per ounce yesterday.

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• There was a $44.40 rise in the price of palladium for June delivery, which is a 3.1% gain, to $1,481.50 per ounce, while platinum for July delivery, price PLK23, -0.59%, increased by $11.20, or 1.2%, to $988.60, a 2% rise in price.

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• To get to $4.0805 per pound as of April 23, copper for May delivery HGK23, -0.09% fell by nearly a penny, or 0.1%.

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Market drivers

Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com, said in a daily commentary: "Gold is being limited this week due to an increase in investor/trader risk appetite as well."

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Stock indexes in the U.S. traded broadly in the positive territory on Thursday, while investors looked elsewhere for their investments.

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According to analysts, traders are keeping a close eye on economic data releases over the next few days, including the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of U.S. consumer price inflation, which is due on Friday, as a result of the precious metal's narrow range over the past few sessions.

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In spite of this week's massive economic data release, gold is more or less trading in a holding pattern due to the massive data, which has caused the precious metal to trade in a holding pattern," said Rhona O'Connell, head of market analysis for StoneX's EMEA and Asia markets.

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However, the final estimate of the U.S. gross domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2022, which was released on Thursday, couldn't provide much insight into the prospects for gold prices, which continued to trade within a tight range for the second consecutive day.

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It was determined that the U.S. economy would grow at a rate of 2.6% by the end of 2022, but corporate profits were reported to have declined for the first time in two years due to weaker consumer spending. It was initially reported that gross domestic product had increased at a rate of 2.9% annually. However, these results indicate that the economy was not as strong as it had appeared at the end of 2022.

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There was a substantial increase in the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week, reaching a high of 198,000 for the first time in three weeks.