Gold hits 9-month low on strong dollar, looming rate hikes

July 12 (Reuters) – Gold hit a nine-month low on Tuesday, under pressure from a strong dollar and rate hike bets, while investors positioned for a raft of U.S. economic data that could determine the pace of monetary tightening.

Spot gold fell 0.5% to $1,724.80 per ounce by 1951 GMT. U.S. gold futures settled down 0.4% at $1,724.8.

“The massive flight to the dollar (by investors) and the anticipation of interest rates moving higher, as inflation is much more sticky, is pressuring gold,” said Daniel Pavilonis, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

The dollar index hovered near a 20-year peak, reinforcing its status as the preferred safe-haven amid growing recession risks, while making gold more expensive for buyers holding other currencies.

A series of U.S. data, including consumer prices, retail sales and factory output, will provide an idea of the extent to which inflation has surged ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

“A higher-than-expected headline CPI print (on Wednesday)should pave the way for yet another 75 basis points hike by the Fed later this month; a scenario widely interpreted to be a negative for gold,” said Han Tan, chief market analyst at Exinity.

Rising rates dim gold’s appeal by increasing the opportunity cost of holding the non-interest yielding asset.

“Any significant or lasting rise in the gold price is being precluded not only by the firm US dollar but also by the ongoing and robust ETF outflows,” Commerzbank said in a note.

Meanwhile, Russian miner Petropavlovsk plans to file for administration after sanctions on Gazprombank, its main lender and sole buyer of its gold, placed it among the first listed companies to face collapse because of the Ukraine war.

Spot silver XAG= fell nearly 1% to $18.90 per ounce, platinum fell 3.2% to $842.07 and palladium fell 6.2% to $2,028.16.

(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra ELuri)