Gold futures dropped on Thursday, with prices losing their grip on the key $1,900 level to mark their lowest finish in more than two weeks. While the 13% gain in gold prices since March 2021 has been "impressive, confidence has actually been fragile and momentum was already easing off before the ADP data and correction" in prices Thursday, said Ross Norman, chief executive officer at Metals Daily. "Gold looked as if it was topping out." Some profit-taking has exacerbated the decline, and gold will rebuild from here, he said. August gold fell $36.60, or 1.9%, to settle at $1,873.30 an ounce, the lowest most-active contract price since May 18, according to FactSet data. On Wednesday, prices marked their highest settlement since Jan. 7.
President Joe Biden has signaled that he would support major changes to his tax proposal to win Republican support on an infrastructure package, the Washington Post reported Thursday. In a closed-door meeting with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Biden recommended a new, minimum corporate tax of 15%, the Post reported. That would take aim at dozens of profitable U.S. corporations that pay little to nothing to the federal government annually. Biden outlined a plan for about $1 trillion in new spending financed through tax changes that don't appear to raise the top corporate rate, the Post said. Biden presented his plan during a meeting Wednesday with Capito, the GOP's chief negotiator on infrastructure.