Gold prices decline by $30, trade below $1850

Gold prices deepened the decline on Monday by about $27 in anticipation of the start of the monetary policy meeting at the Federal Reserve on June 15.

According to inflation data released last week, the consumer price index rose at the highest pace since 2008 during May, and raised expectations that the US central bank might announce on the sidelines of the meeting the timing of ending the accommodative monetary policy.

Spot gold fell 1.5% to hit $1,850.26 per ounce, and gold futures contracts for August fell 1.6%, or $29.70, to reach $1,849.90 per ounce, by 03:15pm Makkah time.

Elsewhere, silver dropped 1.5% to $27.72 per ounce, palladium declined 1% to $2,753.50 and platinum dropped 0.5% to $1,156.57.

The US dollar index - which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six currencies – stabilized at 90.561 points.