By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Gold prices tumbled almost 5% to head back to the mid-$1,700 levels last seen in April as a surging dollar wrecked the prices of commodities priced in the greenback.
Front-month gold futures on New York’s Comex was down $89, or 4.8%, at $1,772.35 per ounce by 11:45 AM ET (15:45 GMT). The session bottom was $1,768, a low not seen since April 30.
The spot price gold, reflective of real-time trades in bullion, was down $34.48, or 1.9%, at $1,777.17, touching a six-week low of $1,767.34 earlier.
Traders and fund managers sometimes decide on the direction for gold by looking at the spot price — which reflects bullion for prompt delivery — instead of futures.
Commodities from gold to oil tumbled after the Dollar Index rose toward the 92 level, rallying for a third day in row, with Thursday’s run-up fired by expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at least twice by end of 2023 to 0.6% from current levels of zero to 0.25%.
The Fed also signaled at the end of its monthly policy meeting on Wednesday that it was looking out for data on when to start tapering its monthly asset purchase of $120 billion which the central bank has been doing since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic a year ago.