2017.03.2314:03:00UTC+00Gold Breaks Win Streak Amid Hawkish Comments

Gold futures inched lower Thursday, ending a five-day win streak after a Federal Reserve official hinted at three more rate hikes in 2017.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams told Wall Street Journal he expects the central bank to raise rates three or four times this year.

Meanwhile, new home sales in the U.S. saw a substantial increase in the month of February, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Thursday, with sales jumping to their highest level in seven months.

April gold was down $2.50, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,247.20/oz.

Commerzbank analysts say gold has plenty of room to rise further.

"Although this psychologically important threshold appears to be posing something of a challenge in the short term, the chances of the price rising above it are good," analysts said.

"Speculative financial investors in particular are likely to jump back onto the bandwagon: in the run-up to the Fed meeting their net long positions had dropped to their lowest level since the beginning of the year, putting them a good 80% lower than their last summer's high," wrote the analysts. "There is ample upside potential, in other words."