Gold slips to three-week low on Fed rate hike expectations

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit a three-week low on Tuesday as expectations for a U.S. interest rate hike this month weighed, but moves were muted as markets awaited U.S. data this week and more pointers on the Trump administration's economic plans.

The precious metal has fallen in five out of the last six sessions as expectations for the Federal Reserve to push ahead with a U.S. rate increase this month ramped up.

Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,223.73 an ounce at 1030 GMT, having earlier touched its lowest since Feb. 15 at $1,222.29 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for April delivery were down $1.80 an ounce at $1,223.70.

The metal slipped last week after comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that the Fed was poised to lift benchmark U.S. rates were seen as cementing plans for an increase at the Fed's March 14-15 meeting.

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

"We're now expecting seven rate hikes for 2017/2018, and I think that will put more pressure on gold," Natixis analyst Bernard Dahdah said, adding that the metal is likely to be sensitive to outflows from bullion-backed exchange-traded funds.

Holdings of the world's largest gold ETF, New York-listed SPDR Gold Shares, fell another 3.8 tonnes on Monday, adding to the previous session's 4.7-tonne decline.

On the wider markets, the dollar edged up against a basket of currencies. Comments overnight by Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro pulled attention back to concerns over the White House's attitude to trade and the dollar, as officials prepare for G20 meetings later this month.

The United States publishes trade balance figures on Tuesday, which will be closely watched, analysts said. They are also awaiting non-farm payrolls data for February on Friday, seen as a key barometer of the health of the U.S. economy.

China's gold reserves were unchanged for a fourth month in February, the country's central bank said on Tuesday, the longest stretch for which it has not added to its holdings since it started updating the data monthly in mid 2015.

Silver was down 0.5 percent at $17.70 an ounce.

"Silver ETFs saw outflows of a good 73 tons yesterday - their most pronounced daily outflow in nearly two months," Commerzbank said in a note. "Almost 94 tons of silver have been withdrawn within the last three days of trading."

Platinum was down 0.2 percent at $972.80, after earlier hitting $965.90, its lowest since Jan. 27, while palladium was 0.2 percent lower at $769.45.

(Additional reporting by Arpan Varghese and Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Susan Thomas)