Gold prices fell on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session, as the dollar gained against its major counterparts on rate hike bets.
Hawkish comments from some Federal Reserve officials bolstered the chance of a 25-bps rate hike at the June FOMC meeting.
Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said on Tuesday that she doesn't think the central bank can hold interest rates steady yet.
Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan noted that a slower pace of tightening doesn't diminish commitment to achieving inflation goals.
On the debt ceiling talks front, President Joe Biden cut short his planned Asia trip to return to Washington and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered a somewhat upbeat assessment on the second round of debt-ceiling talks, suggesting that an agreement is possible by the end of the week.
The dollar index surged to 103.11 before paring some gains. The index was last seen at 102.94, up nearly 0.3%.
Gold futures for June ended lower by $8.10 or about 0.4% at $1,984.90 an ounce, the weakest settlement in about seven weeks.
Silver futures for July ended $0.004 at $23.897 an ounce, while Copper futures for July settled at $3.7545 per pound, gaining $0.0875.
In U.S. economic news, data from the Commerce Department showed housing starts jumped by 2.2% to an annual rate of 1.401 million in April after plunging by 4.5% to a revised rate of 1.371 million in March.
Economists had expected housing starts to drop to an annual rate of 1.405 million from the 1.420 million originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said building permits slumped by 1.5% to an annual rate of 1.416 million in April after tumbling by 3% to a revised rate of 1.437 million in March.
Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, were expected to climb to a rate of 1.430 million from the 1.413 million originally reported for the previous month.
