By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia as it clawed back its losses from the previous session.
Gold futures was up by 0.66% at $1,671.75 by 9:35 PM ET (1:35 GMT) after dropping up to 1% in the previous session.
Dismal economic data came out from the U.S. and China sent investors turning to the yellow metal with souring risk appetite.
U.S. data released overnight said that private employers laid off an astonishing 20.236 million workers in April in the aftermath of the economic turmoil unleashed by the COVID-19 virus.
Meanwhile, China announced a reading of 44.4 for the Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index for April earlier in the day.
Although higher than March’s 43 figure, the reading indicated an economic contraction as it was below the 50-level indicating growth.
Investors will also monitor the U.S. jobless claims report to be released later in the day. Analyst forecasts prepared by Investing.com predict that 3 million Americans were laid off in the previous week.
With the predicted figures, more than 31 million Americans have lost their jobs since late March.