gold prices fell to the lowest levels in more than three months on thursday as federal reserve chairman jerome powell’s comments in sintra portugal on wednesday and in madrid spain on thursday weighed on the yellow metal   gold futures for august delivery gc00 gcq23 fell by 4 or 02 to 1918 per ounce on comex   silver futures si00 siu23 for september delivery declined by 2 cents or 01 to 2306 per ounce   palladium for september delivery pau23 shed 490 or 04 to 1242 per ounce while platinum for october plv23 fell by 3 or 03 to 921 per ounce   copper for september delivery hgu23 fell by 4 cents or 12 to 370 per pound “on wednesday the gold outlook dimmed further as investors assessed the main message coming from this week’s sintra conference – that more policy tightening is on the way – and decided to punish the metal further” said fawad razaqzada market analyst at city index and forexcom in emailed commentary gold prices have been sliding since hitting their secondhighest level on record in early may as central bankers including the fed’s powell have signaled that they plan to raise interest rates even higher to quash inflation which remains well above targets set by central bankers around the world but as the yellow metal has approached the 1900 level analysts including razaqzada have suggested that bargain hunters might swoop in keeping gold from falling further and perhaps sparking a modest rebound powell said on wednesday that he doesn’t expect inflation to return to the fed’s 2 target until 2025 suggesting that rates will remain elevated until then he also refused to rule out the possibility that the fed could raise interest rates at consecutive meetings although he suggested that staggered hikes were more likely most senior fed officials expect to raise rates twice more this year he reiterated gold reached the secondhighest settlement on record for a mostactive contract back in may when it finished at 205570 an ounce on may 4 the highest settlement level on record for the yellow metal arrived on aug 6 2020 when prices finished at 206940 per ounce according to dow jones market data