By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold prices were down in Asia on Friday even as the U.S. reported a record number of unemployment claims the day before.
Gold Futures were down by 0.31% at $1, 632.7 by 9:30 PM ET (2:30 AM GMT), giving up its gains from the last session.
The United States announced overnight that a record 6.648 million people filed for unemployment last week, almost double analyst predictions of 3.5 million claims prepared by Investing.com.
The numbers come as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grind economic activity to a halt.
Investors flocked to the yellow metal, regarded as a safe haven, as U.S. stock markets fell. But gold lost its lustre as Asian stock markets opened with gains on the back of surging oil prices.
Investors were cautiously optimistic as the World Health Organization said that there are more than 900,000 global COVID-19 cases as of April 2. Johns Hopkins University data said that there are over a million cases as of April 3.
“The longer this thing drags out, the worse the situation will be in longer term. Gold is an asset that should do well through all this turbulence, all the money that is being printed to combat the effects of the virus and the interest rates being dropped to zero,” Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, told CNBC.
“We think that gold will likely continue to play an important role in investor allocations over the next few months given all the turbulence. However, volatility will remain quite high,” added Edward Meir, analyst at ED&F Man Capital Markets.