CHICAGO, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange finished slightly higher on Thursday as the unemployment data fueled worries on economy recession. Silver also inched higher, but platinum went down.

    Gold price for June delivery gained 2.50 U.S. dollars, or 0.3 percent, to settle at 928.40 dollars an ounce.

    Investors have been paying more attention to the economic data than ever in the past two weeks in order to make sure whether the economy is bottoming out or not. However, more and more evidences indicated that it is not easy to draw conclusion that U.S. economy is improving.

    Following Wednesday's disappointing retail sales data which edged down 0.4 percent in April, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday the number of new jobless claims rose by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000, well above analysts' expectations of 610,000.

    The negative jobless data remind investors the economy still has a long way to go before upturn. Then, it is still necessary to purchase the precious metal to hedge recession risk.

    The Labor Department also said that the producer price index (PPI) rose 0.3 percent in April following an unrevised 1.2-percent decrease in March. It is 0.1 percent above what economists had expected. The inflationary PPI increased gold's safety appeal.

    The weak dollar, which was lower against other major currencies late in the session, also provided some support to boost gold prices.

    July silver finished at 14.04 dollars per ounce, up 2 cents. July platinum fell 5.70 dollars to 1,117.50 dollars an ounce.