Gold hits first 5-month low as dollar recovers

Gold prices fell to a two-week low on Thursday as the dollar recovered, boosted by stronger-than-expected US economic data, pushing the precious metal to its first monthly drop in five months.
Spot gold fell 0.5 percent to $ 1313.20 an ounce at the end of the US session after recording the weakest level since Feb. 15 at $ 1312.43.

US gold futures fell 0.4 percent to settle at $ 1316.10 an ounce.

The dollar index regained some momentum against a basket of six major currencies after a Commerce Department report showed an annualized 2.6 percent increase in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast gross domestic product (GDP) in the world's largest economy to grow by 2.3 percent in the last three months of last year.

Strong GDP data came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jeromebaol said the US central bank was not rushing to decide on future interest rate hikes.

Among other precious metals, palladium surged 0.8 percent to $ 1541.00 an ounce, after falling from an all-time high of $ 1565.09 hit earlier this week. The metal posted its biggest monthly gain in terms of percentage since November 2016.

Palladium has jumped about 22 percent since the beginning of the year amid a lack of supply in the market.

Silver fell about 1 percent to $ 15.59 an ounce, ending the month at a loss of about 3 percent, the biggest since August.

Platinum rose 0.6 percent to $ 870.00 an ounce after hitting its highest level since Nov. 7 at $ 876 earlier in the session. Prices were also the biggest monthly increase since January 2018, with a gain of more than 5 percent.