Gold prices fell more than 1 percent to fresh eight-month lows on Wednesday as the dollar rallied and investors worried about forecasts that the US Federal Reserve may be readying for faster pace of interest rate hikes than previously projected. Ending two straight days of gains, spot gold was down 1.0 percent at $1,223.78 an ounce by 4:46 pm EDT (2046 GMT).
Earlier in the session, prices had pierced its previous 8-month low hit on Monday to trade as low as $1,221.46 per ounce. US COMEX gold futures for December delivery settled at $1,235.9 an ounce, almost unchanged from Tuesday's close at $1,236.70. Bearish investor sentiment was reflected in the flows of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund. The fund's holdings fell 4.18 tonnes to 784.22 tonnes on Tuesday. Among other precious metals, silver was down 1.23 percent at $18.57 an ounce. Platinum dropped 0.84 percent to $1,356.25 an ounce, while palladium also fell 0.8 percent to $838.25.50.