NEW YORK: Gold fell 1% on Friday en route to its biggest weekly decline since mid-March as indications of fast interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve drove Treasury yields and the dollar higher.

Spot gold fell 0.5% to $1,942.39 per ounce by 10:34 a.m. ET (1434 GMT), after touching its lowest level in two weeks. Prices are down 1.7% for the week so far.

US gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,944.40 per ounce.

“The safe haven metals need a fresh fundamental spark to heighten investor and trader concern and it’s just not happening. The sideways grind that we’ve seen... has invited some chart-based selling,” Kitco’s senior analyst Jim Wycoff said.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday a half-point interest rate increase “will be on the table” when the central bank meets in May.

Benchmark US 10-year Treasury yields extended gains on the Fed’s hawkish tone in its effort to tame soaring inflation. Meanwhile, the dollar index was close to its highest since March 2020.

Although bullion is considered a refuge asset during soaring inflation, a hike in interest rates to rein in the rising prices increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

On the flip side, apart from the uncertainty driven by the Ukraine war, “traders and investors are still kind of edgy as the stock markets have become wobbly, which is also an underlying bullish factor for the metals markets,” Wycoff added.

Expectations for higher interest rates hit sentiment on Wall Street as well. “Gold is likely to trade in the $1,900 to $1,950 an ounce range over the medium-term,” Rupert Rowling, market analyst at Kinesis Money, said in a note.