Gold fell to an eight-month low on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve's reiteration that interest rates were likely to rise this year pushed the dollar index to a seven-week high. Stocks world-wide rose on strong corporate earnings reports and relief over Greece's debt issues. The Greek parliament passed the austerity measures demanded by lenders to open talks on a multi-billion-euro bailout, diverting some attention from gold.
Platinum hit its lowest since February 2009 at $1,000.25 an ounce, hurt by perceptions of plentiful supply. Top producer Anglo American Platinum said its output rose 60 percent in the second quarter. Palladium slipped to its lowest since November 2012 at $622.75 an ounce. Spot gold was down 0.4 percent at $1,144.65 an ounce at 2:41 pm EDT (1841 GMT), after falling to the lowest since November at $1,142.10 following Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's statement on Wednesday that the central bank will likely raise interest rates later this year if the US economy expands as expected.
US gold futures for August delivery settled down 0.3 percent at $1,143.90 an ounce. Gold is sensitive to rising US interest rates as they increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion and help the dollar. "The market is beginning to focus on the timing of the rate hike and we are seeing that supporting the dollar, and that's why we are seeing gold grinding lower," Danske Bank senior analyst Jens Pedersen said. Silver was down 0.7 percent at $14.98 an ounce.
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