NEW YORK: Gold dropped to its lowest level since March 2021 on Thursday, hurt by elevated US Treasury yields and a firm dollar, as bets of another hefty rate hike by the US Federal Reserve eroded bullion’s appeal.

Spot gold was last down 1.2% at $1,674.99 per ounce by 10:50 a.m. ET (1450 GMT).

US gold futures fell 1.1% to $1,690.90.

“Today, the biggest factor are yields (which) seemed pretty strong after taking a little bit of a reprieve,” said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

“This sell-off into September, October has really been just on rate adjustments, rates came off pretty hard and now they’re right back up again and pushing gold lower.”

Prices had briefly pared losses as investors took stock of data that showed US retail sales unexpectedly rose in August, while separate data showed US weekly jobless claims fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 213,000 last week. Markets have fully priced in an interest rate hike of at least 75 basis points at the end of the Fed’s policy meeting next week, possibly even as high as 100 basis points.

Although gold is considered a safe bet during economic uncertainty, interest rate hikes increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday central bankers must be persistent in fighting broad-based inflation.

Elsewhere, spot silver fell 1.9% to $19.31 per ounce.

“This week’s strength in the US dollar index, along with rising US Treasury yields and some hotter US inflation data, have all combined to keep gold and silver buyers mostly standing on the sidelines,” Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, said in a note.