Gold loses more than $60, trades below $1,800

Gold prices deepened decline on Thursday, on US dollar strength and the decisions by the Federal Reserve to support its direction towards tightening monetary policy.

The monetary policy statement revealed that US Federal Reserve officials expect to raise the basic interest rate twice by the end of 2023, as the US central bank expects inflation to rise by 3.4% this year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also said he had a discussion this week about a possible phase-out of the asset purchase program.

Spot gold fell by 0.8%, or about $14.64, to hit $1,796.80 per ounce, and gold futures contracts for August fell 3.4%, or about $63.40, to reach $1,798 per ounce, by 01:45am Makkah time.

Elsewhere, silver fell 4.1% to $26.69 per ounce, palladium declined 3.3% to hit $2,742 per ounce and platinum fell 1.6% to reach $1,107.25 per ounce.

The US dollar index - which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six currencies – rose by 0.8% to reach 91.8450 points.

US unemployment claims data for last week is due later today, June 17, amid expectations of a drop to 360,000.