Gold, other metals retreat as dollar soars

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A customer checks a gold necklace before buying it at a jewellery showroom on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, a major gold buying festival, in Kolkata, India, May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

By Eileen Soreng

(Reuters) - Gold fell on Thursday, dragging other precious metals along, as the dollar scaled a fresh two-decade on renewed expectations the Federal Reserve would stick to its aggressive rate-hike roadmap.

Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,846.56 per ounce by 1244 GMT. U.S. gold futures were down 0.5% at $1,844.30.

"Gold again has failed to garner momentum to the upside, despite pretty epic issues in the global economy, like multi-decade high inflation... What seems to be weighing on gold though in particular is the dollar," independent analyst Ross Norman said.

"It appear that while looking at the ETF(Exchange Traded Fund) flows, the U.S. institutional investors are scaling back positions on gold."

The U.S. dollar index rose to two-decade highs -- making gold less attractive for overseas buyers -- benefiting from safe-haven inflows driven by concerns tighter monetary policies to tame surging inflation will hurt the global economy. [USD/]

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates and higher yields, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion and also boosts the dollar.

Any strength in gold resulting from its role as safe haven and inflation hedge is likely to "remain capped by the rampant US dollar," ActivTrades senior analyst Ricardo Evangelista wrote in a note.

Declines in gold were, however, capped by a slide in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields, which hit the lowest level in two weeks. [US/]

Spot silver fell 2.7% to $20.97 per ounce - it hit its lowest since July 2020 earlier in the session.

"Silver is falling faster than gold, that's a bearish sign for the whole complex. With the ongoing lockdowns in China, industrial metals are struggling and US institutional investor who's bailing out a gold ETF by extension bails out of silver as well," Norman added.

Platinum dropped 3% to $962.33 and palladium slid 5.7% to $1,918.66.