Gold prices fall below $1,800

Gold prices fell on Thursday, below $1,800, after closing above this level on July 7, for the first time in three weeks, before the release of US economic data.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting today, July 8, showed that US central officials expect continued progress to reduce massive asset purchases.

Spot gold fell 0.4% to reach $1,796.64 per ounce, and gold futures contracts for August declined 0.3% to reach $1,797.50 per ounce, by 09:40am Makkah time.

Elsewhere, silver rose 0.6% to $25.98 per ounce, palladium fell 0.5% to hit $2,835 per ounce, and platinum declined 1.1% to $1,077.18 per ounce.

The US dollar index - which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of six currencies – settled at 92.729 points.

The US will release last week's unemployment claims data later today amid expectations of a drop to 345,000.