It may have been gone as soon as it appeared gold above $1700 per ounce was short-lived as market forces and a changing market sentiment took the precious yellow metal $37 lower today, with gold futures currently fixed at $1694.50.

Today the U.S. Labor Department reported that an additional 5.25 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. This brings the total number of individuals applying for unemployment benefits to just over 21 million in the last month.

On yesterday’s opening letter we spoke about the fact that even though gold traded to its highest value this year, it’s still closed lower on the day.