gold futures traded sharply lower thursday morning as the us dollar popped higher a day after the us federal reserve signaled that it would soon be appropriate to raise interest rates as soon as march “speaking at the end of a twoday gathering the fed’s chairman gave clear indications of a commitment to tighten monetary policies to bring inflation under control which led the markets to price in 200 basis points worth of rate hikes in 2022” wrote ricardo evangelista senior analyst at activtrades in a thursday note “such a scenario is obviously supportive for the dollar and therefore penalizes gold due to the inverted correlation between the two assets” the analyst wrote the us dollar was up 11 on the session as measured by the ice us dollar index dxy  marching to its highest level since around 2020 on thursday february gold gcg22 gc00 traded 1770 or 1 lower to reach 1812 an ounce following a 12 decline on wednesday marking the lowest finish since jan 18 gold is priced in dollars and tends to fall as the us currency rises because a higher value for the buck can make buying bullion more expensive for overseas investors the currency market is more buoyant on the prospect of elevated rates fed chairman jerome powell at a wednesday news conference to discuss the central bank’s updated policy statement didn’t reject the notion it could increase interest rates at each of its meetings in 2022 and talked of the need to be “nimble” powell also said there was “quite a bit of room to raise rates without hurting jobs” that sets up a bearish scenario for nonyielding precious metals with the prospect of rates extending their rise and competing against bullion for safehaven demand chintan karnani director of research at insignia consultants said that gold needs to trade between the 17961803 zone to rise to 183110 and 185360 an ounce he warned that bullion could face a technical breakdown if “gold trades below the 17961803 zone only” meanwhile silver for march delivery sih22 was trading 58 cents or 24 lower at 2324 an ounce after shedding 04 on tuesday concerns about conflict in western russia however may limit declines for precious metals which tend to rise amid heightened geopolitical risk a buildup of russian troops at the border with ukraine in recent months is threatening to devolve into a military clash that could ripple across parts of the globe