Global gold cost decline on hawkish comments by US Federal Reserve.

Bengaluru: Gold fell on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened on hawkish comments overnight from US Federal Reserve officials, while an eagerly awaited speech by US President Donald Trump contained few specifics or surprises.Spot gold had dropped 0.5% to $1,244.93 per ounce by 9.15am. The metal hit its highest since 11 November at $1,263.80 on 27 February.US gold futures fell 0.8% to $1,243.60.Trump pledged to overhaul the immigration system, improve jobs and wages for Americans and promised “massive” tax relief to the middle class and tax cuts for companies.“The speech was very light on detail ... I suspect it has a bit turned into a damp squib. There were no new policy announcements there and a lot of it is already built into the US dollar,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.

“I would expect US dollar to weaken in the coming hours and things like gold and oil should rally.”The president had already said on Monday that he would propose a budget that would increase spending on defence while seeking savings elsewhere.The dollar index was up 0.4% at 101.480.A handful of Fed policymakers on Tuesday boosted expectations for a March US interest rate increase, with comments that suggested rate-setters are worried about waiting too long in the face of pending economic stimulus from Washington.The comments sparked a flurry of selling in the bond market, with the two-year Treasury yield jumping to its highest level since December.Interest rate futures implied traders saw nearly a 57% chance the Fed would raise rates at its March 14-15 meeting, up from roughly 31% late on Monday, and around 20% a week ago, according to Reuters data.“I believe that the March Fed meeting is live now and we may even see a rate hike. Maybe the markets will turn their attention towards that,” Halley said. “But, Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaking on Friday should be quite important now. If she is towards the hawkish side, then the March meeting will be live and strengthen the dollar.”Spot gold may stabilize around support at $1,244 per ounce, and then rise into a range of $1,252-$1,258, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.Spot silver fell 0.2% to $18.25 per ounce.