Gold futures declined on Friday to mark their lowest settlement in seven weeks, with most-active contract prices marking their largest weekly percentage loss since March of last year. Prices spent part of the day trading higher, but St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said Friday he expects the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate in 2022, sending gold prices back toward session lows, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. The Fed’s “hawkish tilt made the bond market scramble this week and that chaos has been supportive for the dollar, which was terrible news for bullion,” he said. August gold fell $5.80, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,769 an ounce, the lowest finish since April 30. Prices based on the most-active contract lost 5.9% for the week, the biggest decline since the week ended March 13, 2020, FactSet data show.
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