Gold hits near 5-week low after Fed strikes hawkish note

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold slid to a near five-week low on Monday after comments from top Federal Reserve officials fuelled speculation that U.S. interest rates would rise sooner rather than later, boosting the dollar.

Speaking at a meeting of leading central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Fed chair Janet Yellen said on Friday that an improvement in the economy and the labour market in recent months had boosted the case for hiking rates. [FRX/]

The CME Group's FedWatch tool showed the market pricing in more than a 30 percent chance of a hike in September, up from 18 percent before Yellen and her deputy Stanley Fischer spoke.

Spot gold touched its lowest since July 26 at $1,314.70, and was down 0.1 percent at $1,319.81 an ounce at 1135 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery were down $2.80 an ounce at $1,323.10.

Gold whipsawed on Friday, rising as much as 1.5 percent in the immediate wake of Yellen's comments, before slipping back to end the day marginally lower.

"The market was surprised (by Yellen) -- that is why it went all the way up first, before losing it all," Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS in Switzerland, said. "The demand for physical (gold) is still very poor, so it feels like we may need to test lower levels first before a surge in price."

Gold's volatility tracked fluctuations in the dollar. The U.S. currency gave up gains soon after Yellen spoke as she gave no indication that a rate hike was imminent, but rebounded as traders reassessed her words, and after Fed Vice Chair Fischer said the Fed was still on track to lift rates this year.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

"The pressure on gold will likely increase as we go into September, as participants are now more willing to bet on a rate hike given what they have gleaned from top Fed officials on Friday," INTL FCStone said in a note.

Hedge funds and money managers increased their net long position in COMEX gold contracts in the week to Aug. 23, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.

Silver was little changed at $18.61 an ounce, having earlier touched its lowest in more than eight weeks at $18.36 an ounce.

Platinum, the biggest faller among the major precious metals last week, was up 1 percent at $1,077.60 an ounce, while palladium was down 0.2 percent at $684.38 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Koustav Samanta in Bengaluru; Editing by Ruth Pitchford and Louise Heavens)