ENERGY - Oil prices have continued their downward slide in the wake of unexpectedly high US jobless claims and concerns about a supply glut. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery dropped $US1.19 to $US93.26 a barrel on Thursday. European benchmark Brent futures for May delivery dipped 77 US cents to $US106.34 a barrel. The decline came after Department of Labor data showed initial claims for unemployment benefits totalled 385,000 in the week ending March 30, up 28,000 from the prior week. Analysts had expected the claims reading, an indicator of the pace of layoffs, to fall. On Wednesday oil prices tumbled - WTI sank 2.8 per cent in the biggest day-to-day drop since November - after an official US oil inventory report showed surprisingly lofty supplies and data on private sector hiring and the service sector came in weaker than expected. Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors, said the poor labour reports have dimmed expectations for Friday's important monthly report on non-farm payrolls and unemployment. "A lot of people are positioning themselves for tomorrow's jobs report," Zahir said. PRECIOUS METALS - Gold futures ended slightly lower on Thursday, paring earlier losses as the US dollar weakened and helped cushion gold's declines. The most actively traded contract, for June delivery, settled down $US1.10, or 0.1 per cent, at $1,552.40 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was a fresh nine-month settlement low for the contract. The US dollar eased against a basket of international currencies through the afternoon, skidding into negative territory. The ICE Dollar Index was recently trading down 0.1 per cent at 82.673. Gold futures are traded in US dollars and become cheaper for investors who use other currencies when the dollar weakens. This tends to lure foreign investors into the gold market as buyers. Gold prices must climb above $US1,615 a troy ounce, their 50-day moving average, before traders who follow technical indicators will be convinced the metal is on track to recovery, said Ralph Preston, market analyst with Heritage West Financial. "We just don't know if this is just a bounce, or if this is where physical buying comes back in," Mr. Preston said. BASE METALS - Copper closed higher on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday, due to a combination of bargain-hunting and a stronger euro against the US dollar, which reversed the metal's earlier losses across most of the base metals complex. At the PM kerb close, LME three-month copper closed up 0.7 per cent at $US7,440 a metric tonne and aluminum climbed 0.7 per cent to $US1,885 a tonne. Only nickel closed lower, down 0.1 per cent at $US16,095 a tonne. Base metals closed mostly higher as the dollar weakened against the euro to about 1.293, compared with 1.284 on Wednesday. Base metal prices generally rise when the dollar weakens because it becomes cheaper for investors to buy the dollar-denominated base metals using less foreign currency. A London-based trader also said there was a bit of short-covering on technical trading that provided some support. "We got some bargain hunting and that triggered some short covering," said William Adams, head of commodities research at FastMarkets.com. He noted that some of the base metal prices are hovering close to last summer's low even though there are signs that both the US and Chinese economies, the two largest in the world, are set to continue growing this year. "If [the two economies] are pointing in the right direction, maybe [base metal] prices shouldn't be falling so much," he said.