Gold ends slightly higher

August gold added $1.30 to trade at $1,208.30 per troy ounce in New York Thursday after a day of volatile trade on mixed economic news and a weakened US dollar.

While the US Federal Reserve reported that industrial production was up by 0.1 percent in June, both the Philadelphia Fed and the New York fed said that manufacturing activity in their regions is expanding more slowly in July.

The Fed also lowered its forecast of economic growth for next year and hinted that it is looking at new ways to stimulate the US economy.

Meanwhile, wholesale prices were 0.5 percent lower in June, while the US Labor Department said that 29,000 fewer new unemployment claims were filed last week, bringing total new claims to their lowest level in nearly two years.

Other precious metals also saw gains as September silver added 7 cents to $18.36 per troy ounce, October platinum was up $13.10 to $1,533.70 per troy ounce and September palladium gained $1.40 to $467.20 per troy ounce.

Base metals prices were mixed, with September copper up less than a cent to $3.01 per pound while three-month contracts for the metal used in construction and manufacturing dropped $45 to $6,680 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

While aluminium added $13 to $2.018 per tonne in London, zinc dropped $40 to $1,810 per tonne.

Lead went untraded at the close, but final bids were down $28 to $1,798 per tonne, while both tin and nickel prices were unchanged at $17,950 per tonne and $19,400 per tonne respectively.

The International Lead and Zinc Study Group, an intergovernmental organization founded by the United Nations in 1959, reported that both lead and zinc were in surplus for the first five moths of the year, by 34,000 tonnes and 209,000 tonnes respectively.