WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures remained below $1,300 an ounce on Friday, unable to trim this week's significant losses despite a slightly weaker U.S. dollar.
June gold fell 50 cents to settle at $1,294.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month contract was down more than 3 percent this week.
The precious metal lost its luster last week when Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested that interest rate hikes may be in the cards about a year from now.
Today's encouraging U.S. consumer spending data may give the Fed's more hawkish members further reason to advocate for tightening monetary policy sooner than expected.
New government figures showed consumer spending rose 0.3 percent in February, suggesting that the mid-winter slowdown was weather-related and temporary.
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