Gold books a loss, settles near the lows of 2018
Gold futures finished Thursday’s session in negative territory, continuing the choppy, mostly dollar-driven trading that has kept the precious metal pinned near a 2018 nadir. August gold ended $6.10, or 0.5%, lower at $1,225.70 an ounce, representing its fourth lowest close of 2018, according to FactSet data. A climb in the dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index , which reflects the buck’s strength against six rival currencies, was up 0.3% at 94.65 on the session. A stronger dollar undercuts appetite for gold because it makes dollar-pegged commodities, like gold, more expensive to those using other monetary units. The dollar’s move, and therefore gold’s, was at least partly influenced by weakness in the euro , which followed the European Central Bank’s latest monetary policy update.