Gold Futures Settle Lower For 2nd Straight Day On Rate Hike Bets

Gold prices drifted lower on Wednesday, falling for a second straight session and pushing the most active gold futures contract to the lowest settlement in nearly two months.

The dollar’s weakness helped limit gold’s downside. The dollar index, which rose sharply on Tuesday after data from the Labor Department showed hotter-than-expected inflation in the U.S. in the month of August, dropped to 109.28 this morning. The index was last seen hovering around 109.50, down by about 0.3% from the previous close.

Gold futures for December ended lower by $8.30 or about 0.5% at 1,709.10 an ounce, the lowest close since July 20.

Silver futures for December ended up by $0.078 at $19.569 an ounce, while Copper futures for December settled at $3.5195 per pound, down $0.0360 from the previous close.

Data from the U.S. Labor Department on Tuesday showed the consumer price index inched up by 0.1% in August after coming in unchanged in July. Economists had expected consumer prices to edge down by 0.1%.

Compared to the same month a year ago, consumer prices were up by 8.3% in August, reflecting a slowdown from the 8.5% spike in July. However, economists had expected the annual rate of growth to slow to 8.1%.

Meanwhile, the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices accelerated to 6.3% in August from 5.9% in July. The annual rate of growth was expected to rise to 6.1%.

In economic releases today, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand edged down by 0.1% in August after falling by a revised 0.4% in July.

The report also showed the annual rate of growth in producer prices slowed to 8.7% in August from 9.8% in July, roughly in line with estimates.

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