2021.09.1718:42:00UTC+00Gold Futures Fall For 3rd Straight Day, Settle At Over 5-week Low

Gold futures settled lower on Friday, extending losses to a third straight session, weighed down by a stronger dollar.

The dollar gained against most of its major rivals with traders looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting, scheduled to take place coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave monetary policy unchanged but could address the outlook for its asset purchase program.

The minutes of the Fed's last meeting signaled the central bank was prepared to begin scaling back asset purchases by the end of the year.

The dollar index climbed to 93.20, gaining about 0.3%.

Gold futures for December ended down by $5.30 or about 0.3% at $1,751.40 an ounce, the lowest settlement in over five weeks. Gold futures had shed more than 2% on Thursday.

Gold futures lost 2.3% in the week, losing for a second successive week.

Silver futures for December ended lower by $0.457 or about 2% at $22.337 an ounce, after declining by more than 4% in the previous session. Silver futures lost over 6% in the week.

Copper futures for December settled at $4.2460 per pound, down $0.0355 or 0.8% from the previous close, and lost about 4.6% in the week.

A report released by the University of Michigan showed U.S. consumer sentiment rebounded less than expected in September.

The report said the consumer sentiment index inched up by 71.0 in September from 70.3 in August. Economists had expected the index to rise to 72.2.

The modest increase came after the consumer sentiment index tumbled to its lowest level since December of 2011 in the previous month.

"The steep August falloff in consumer sentiment ended in early September, but the small gain still meant that consumers expected the least favorable economic prospects in more than a decade," said Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin.