Encouraging reports on unemployment and inflation, along with healthy auctions of Spanish and French treasury securities, was supporting gold, silver and stocks Thursday morning.

Having risen overnight and in the European morning, spot gold was mostly flat, bid at $1,659.70 per ounce with an ask price of $1,660.70. Spot gold traded as high as $1,663.80 and as low as $1,650.60. The London afternoon reference price fix came in at $1,655, $8 per ounce higher than Wednesday’s reference price, according to Kitco market data.

Spot silver was up 0.46%, bid at $30.66 per ounce with an ask price of $30.76. The morning high as of time of writing was $30.98 and the low was $30.29. Thursday’s reference price was set at $30.79 in the London a.m., 64 cents per ounce higher than yesterday’s price fix.

Seasonally adjusted weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 352,000 for the week ending Jan. 14, 50,000 less than the previous week’s revised 402,000 and the lowest since April 2008. The four-week moving average stood at 379,000, down from the previous week’s 382,500.

December’s seasonally adjusted CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) was unchanged month-to-month, while the unadjusted all-items CPI increased 3% annually. Seasonally adjusted December real average hourly earnings (adjusted for inflation) for all employees rose 0.2%.

Gold bullion reached a five-week high just shy of $1,670 per ounce in London morning trading before slipping back to around $1,660, BullionVault reports in its London Gold Market report. The dollar continued to fall back from hitting a 17-month high against the euro.

Supporting the market’s optimism was good demand for treasury auctions held by Spain and France, which were able to issue both new long- and medium-term debt securities at lower rates than their previous respective auctions. Hanging over financial markets are concerns about the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the EU, Greece and private-sector holders of Greek debt regarding the haircut investors will accept for another round of EU emergency funding to be released.

Gold trusts were lower, but the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV) was moving slightly higher.

• The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) was showing losses of around 0.45%.
• The iShares Gold Trust (NYSE:IAU) was down about 0.4%.
• The iShares Silver Trust was showing smallish gains of less than 0.2%.

Gold and silver mining ETFs were moving lower.

• The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) was showing losses of more than 0.5%.
• The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDXJ) was down more than 0.2%.
• The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE:SIL) was down around 0.35%.

Gold mining shares were mixed, mostly showing small gains or losses.

• Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) was showing gains of 1.25%.
• Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down around 1.25%.
• Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) was unchanged.
• Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) was down less than 0.1%.
• Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) was down more than 1%.
• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) was down 1%.
• NovaGold Resources (AMEX:NG) was flat.
• Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) was trading slightly higher, up less than 0.1%.

Silver mining shares also were mixed, with Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ:SSRI) and Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) showing strong gains.

• Coeur d’Alene Mines was moving higher, up nearly 1.6%.
• Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was down around 0.2%.
• Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) was up more than 0.4%.
• Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) was showing small losses around 0.1%.
• Silver Standard Resources was sharply higher, up 2.5%.

As of this writing, Andrew Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.