Shares of precious metals miners rallied on Thursday, with the VanEck Gold Miners ETF GDX tracking the industry posting a 1.2% rise for the session and several mining stocks reporting solid gains.

Thursday’s unexpected surge in unemployment claims, sparked fears about a weakening labor market and triggered positive reactions for gold and silver mining companies. According to the latest CME Group Fed Watch tool, investors have placed their bets on the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged next week, assigning a nearly 75% probability.

Both the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields fell for the session, while precious metals rose, as the risk of an additional hike faded, at least for now.

Gold, tracked by the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, gained 1.3%, while silver, tracked by the iShares Silver Trust SLV, climbed 3.7%.

Best Performing Mining Stocks On Thursday

1. Caledonia Mining Corp. plc CMCL: CMCL rallied nearly 5% on Thursday, marking the strongest daily performance among US-listed precious-metals mining stocks
2. Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. BVN up 4.3%
3. Contango Ore, Inc. CTGO up 4.2%
4. McEwen Mining Inc. MUX up 4.1%
5. DRDGold Ltd. DRD up 2.4%.

Chart: Gold and Silver Rallied On Thursday, Driving Mining Stocks Up

Read now: Stocks Rally, Metals Gain As Dollar, Yields Fall: Soft Labor Market May Prompt Fed Pause