Gold ends higher, jumps above $1,800

Gold prices rallied on Thursday, and breached the $1800/ounce barrier after the US dollar fell against most of its peers ahead of the monthly jobs report.

The US Department of Labor showed that the unemployment claims fell to 498,000 last week, dropping below 500,000 for the first time since the pandemic started, beating forecasts of 540,000.

ADB data showed today that the US private sector added 742K new jobs in April, the largest monthly rise since September, missing forecasts of 872K.

The data comes ahead of the US Labor Department's monthly jobs report for April next Friday, which provides key insight on the US labor market.

The dollar index fell against a basket of currencies by 0.4% 90.9 points as of 18:45 GMT, after it hit a high of 91.3 points and a low of 90.9 points.

Gold June futures rose 1.8% or $31.40, and closed at $1,815.70 an ounce.