Gold bars arranged at the Korea Gold Exchange store in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Gold prices hovered near five-week lows on Thursday, as hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve officials and robust data dampened investors' expectation for deeper and early interest rate cuts in U.S. this year. The dollar has strengthened substantially in the past few days, putting a strain on gold prices, Brian Lan at the Singapore based dealer GoldSilver Central, said. Money markets were betting on 142 basis points of Fed rate cuts this year, while pricing in a 61% chance of a March easing, according to LSEG's interest rate probability app, IRPR. Lower interest rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding bullion.

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Persons: Brian Lan, it's, GoldSilver's Lan, Raphael Bostic, Bostic, Christopher Waller's Organizations: Korea Gold Exchange, Federal Reserve, GoldSilver, Traders, Atlanta Federal Reserve Locations: Seoul, South Korea, Singapore