Gold recovers after hitting five-week low on dollar rally

By Maytaal Angel

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices rose on Tuesday after hitting a five-week low as the dollar steadied after reaching a 3-week peak following hawkish comments from an influential U.S. Federal Reserve official.

New York Fed President William Dudley said on Monday that labour market tightness should help drive up inflation, reinforcing the message that recent weak data is unlikely to derail plans to keep raising interest rates.

The greenback had a further lift on Tuesday following dovish comments from Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, but later gave back gains to trade little changed versus a basket of major currencies.

"It (another rate hike) is not entirely unlikely. Gold from now to the end of the year could see slight drops, especially if (on top of Fed hikes) the European Central Bank starts tapering its bond buying programme," said Natixis analyst Bernard Dahdah.

Spot gold rose 0.3 percent to $1,246.60 per ounce by 1206 GMT, after earlier touching a low of $1,242.61 an ounce, the weakest since May 17.

U.S. gold futures rose 0.1 percent to $1,247.90.

Investors are pricing in around a 50 percent chance that rates will be raised again by the year-end, according to CME FedWatch. A strong dollar makes dollar-priced gold costlier for non-U.S. investors.

"The market attributes considerable weight to Dudley's words, as he represents the majority opinion of the Federal Open Markets Committee. Other Fed members who are generally regarded to be hawkish will be speaking today, which could put renewed pressure on the gold price," said Commerzbank in a note.

Late Monday, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said it may be worthwhile for the U.S. central bank to wait until year-end to decide on rates, but investors focused on Dudley's comments to bet the dollar up and gold down.

"Mixed U.S dollar trade provided some respite for gold during Asian trade on Tuesday, however, not to the extent we expected we would see," MKS PAMP trader Sam Laughlin said in a note.

"The next key level of support sits around $1,240, with a broad extension to the 200 day moving average around $1,237."

Among other metals, spot palladium traded flat at $859.90 per ounce, and platinum gained 0.4 percent to $925.70.

Silver rose 0.7 percent to $16.57. In the previous session, it touched $16.44, its weakest since May 18.

(Additional reporting by Nithin ThomasPrasad, editing by David Evans and Pritha Sarkar)