Gold prices continue to slip, still above $1,810

Gold prices continued to slip today, May 19, amid expectations of a possible interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, which is making investors favor the US dollar over the precious metal.

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Patrick Harker expects the US central bank to continue raising interest rates by 50 basis points before slowing the pace of increase to control inflation. Similarly, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed earlier that the central bank is prepared for interest rate hikes until prices start falling back toward a healthy level.

Gold futures contracts for June delivery fell 0.26% to $1,810.80 an ounce at 09:37 am Makkah time, while spot prices also dipped by 0.21% to $1,813.69 per ounce.

Elsewhere, silver futures for July delivery declined by 0.78% to $21.337 an ounce. The spot price of palladium dropped by 0.36% to $2,010.27, with the spot price of platinum also plummeting by 0.73% to $928.52.

The main dollar index, which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six currencies, settled at 103.79 points.

Markets are anticipating the release of the US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index due later in the day, with expectations of posting 14.9 points in May. That is in addition to the disclosure of US weekly jobless claims data, which is set to record 200,000 new claims during the past week.