gold futures tumbled on thursday as the us dollar and treasury yields advanced after the federal reserve delivered its fourth 75 basis point interest rate hike since the start of the year pushing prices for the precious metal to a twoandahalfyear low the fed aftermath is leading to pain for bullion as fed chair powell has signaled rates will be much higher said edward moya senior market analyst at oanda in a market update the peak in the dollar was potentially going to be put in place butpowell said they are worried more about doing too little on inflation than too much the central bank on wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 075 percentage points to a range of 375 to 4  the highest level in 15 years powell acknowledged in his postmeeting press conference that at some point it will be appropriate to slow the pace of increases but he also said the feds benchmark rate was likely to end up higher than previously expected readfed says it may hike interest rates at slower pace but destination is now 5 or higher gold and silver turned sharply lower yesterday after fed chair powell delivered a hammerblow to sentiment across markets as he managed to both pull off the idea of the fed may indeed soon pivot to a slower pace of rate hikes but that any talk of a pause is very premature said ole hansen head of commodity strategy at saxo bank treasury yields climbed with the 10year yield up 81 basis points to 4135 the ice us dollar index  a gauge of the dollars strength against a basket of rivals was up 11 at 11257 gold could be in trouble here as the dollar could outperform for the next month said moya gold is hovering right around key support which means if prices break momentum selling could be intense