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· Data showed U.S. jobless claims fell last week, but a staggering 31.3 million people were receiving unemployment checks in mid-July, as new infections battered the economy.

· Gold has rallied more than 35% this year as it is considered an asset that should hold its value while the pandemic and money printing by central banks erode the value of others.

· Markets awaited further policy response as U.S. Democratic leaders and White House officials continued their talks to try to hash out a next wave of relief to help the economy.

· Silver prices jumped 4.6% to $28.26 per ounce, having hit a more than seven-year peak of $28.42, helped by a combination of investment and industrial demand.

· “While there are no early chart clues to suggest the gold and silver markets are close to major tops, both are now getting short-term overbought, technically, and are due for downside corrections in the uptrends,” Kitco Metals senior analyst Jim Wyckoff said in a note.

“And remember that with the higher volatility and bigger daily price gains seen at present, there will also be bigger downside corrections when they come.”

· Platinum rose 1.5% to $981.53 per ounce and palladium climbed 1.6% to $2,216.06.

· Trump says he signed order reimposing 10% aluminum tariffs on Canada

President Donald Trump said he signed a proclamation Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada that had been suspended more than a year earlier.

“Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,” Trump said during a lengthy, campaign-style speech at a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Ohio.

“The aluminum business was being decimated by Canada,” he said. “Very unfair to our jobs and our great aluminum workers.”

The announcement comes just over a month after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – the Trump-backed trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA – went into effect.

· Bank of England Governor Bailey denies outlook is optimistic, warns that parts of the economy are ‘not viable’

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has denied suggestions that the central bank’s economic outlook is too optimistic in the wake of its latest monetary policy report.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Thursday held interest rates steady and maintained its asset purchase program at existing levels, while noting a sharper-than-expected but uneven economic recovery so far. The Bank revised up its short-term growth projections, but warned that a full recovery will take longer than initially forecast.

The central bank now expects U.K. GDP (gross domestic product) to shrink by 9.5% in 2020, compared to the 14% contraction it predicted in May. The economy is then seen rebounding by 9% in 2021, compared to the15% forecast in May, and to grow by a further 3.5% in 2022.

The “X factor,” Bailey said, will be the evolution of the Covid-19 outbreak, with the Bank’s forecasts including the “largest ever degree of uncertainty in any forecast the MPC has done.” His comments come as modest containment measures are being introduced in parts of the U.K. amid fears of a second wave.

“Closely related to that is people’s natural caution in response to their perceptions and understanding of the evolution of Covid, and how people are cautious about re-engaging in economic activity,” Bailey said, adding that the BOE has seen evidence of this so far.

· Global recovery could be faster if COVID vaccine made available to all: WHO chief

Economic recovery around the world could come faster if any COVID-19 vaccine is made available to all as a public good, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.

He was speaking in an online panel discussion with members of the Aspen Security Forum in the United States moderated by the NBC network.

· Singapore lender OCBC Q2 profit slumps 40%, hurt by loan-loss provisions

Singapore’s second-largest lender Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp OCBC reported a larger-than-expected 40% tumble in quarterly net profit on Friday, hurt by loan-loss provisions in a pandemic-hit market and a slowdown in customer activity.

Net profit declined to S$730 million ($533.31 million) in the June quarter from S$1.2 billion a year earlier and versus the average estimate of S$980 million of five analysts, according to data from Refinitiv.

Profit rose 5% from the first quarter.

Reference: CNBC, Reuters