Gold futures end lower after back-to-back session gains

Gold futures finished lower on Monday, with prices easing after posting back-to-back session gains. Precious metals investors are now looking forward to the conclusion of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, where the U.S. central bank is highly likely to hike rates by another 75 basis points to bring the Fed Fund rate to 2.50%, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com. “Given the weakness we have seen in the dollar and yields last week, it looks like this is already priced in,” he said. Unless the Fed hikes by 100 basis points, “there is a possibility we will see further weakness in the dollar, and gains for gold.” On Monday, August gold fell $8.30, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,719.10 an ounce.

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