Gold fell 2 percent on Tuesday for its biggest one-day drop in a month, tumbling suddenly after the Federal Reserve released minutes of its March meeting, suggesting to investors that policy makers were growing less eager to launch additional monetary stimulus measures.
Bullion was already lower before the Fed released minutes of its most recent policy meeting, which suggested that officials of the US central bank were not ready to start a third round of government bond buying, or quantitative easing, known as QE3. Spot gold was down 2 percent at $1,643.60 an ounce by 3:24 pm EST (1924 GMT). It had gained as much as 2 percent in the two previous sessions.
Prior to the Fed minutes, US gold futures for June delivery settled down $7.70 an ounce at $1,672. Trading volume rose after the Fed minutes but still was below normal for a third straight day. Spot silver was down 1.2 percent at $32.58 an ounce, spot platinum eased 0.4 percent at $1,638.24 an ounce, and spot palladium inched down 0.2 percent at $648.85 an ounce.