Gold settles lower as dollar rises

Gold bars

Gold prices slipped at Wednesday’s close as the US dollar strengthened and investors assessed the economic outlook for both the US and the global economy.

June gold futures fell 0.16%, or $5.5, to settle at $2,294.9 an ounce.

The decline came as the US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.37% to 99 points as of 10:28 p.m. Makkah time.

“The gold market has been kind of choppy recently, just reacting to fresh daily fundamental news events with no real trending price action,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, in comments to Reuters.

Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s May meeting indicated that policymakers may face tough choices ahead if inflation proves difficult to bring down to the 2% target amid rising recession risks and a potential uptick in unemployment.