That knocked gold to a low of $1,143.43 an ounce, its weakest since mid-March. "Impending rate hikes, reiterated by Yellen lately in the midst of the global deflationary environment, noting yesterday's disappointing retail sales, appears to be a primary pressure factor on gold," said Mike McGlone, director of research for ETF Securities in New York.
Spot gold was down 0.6 percent at $1,148.51 an ounce at 2:09 p.m. EDT (1809 GMT), while US gold futures for August delivery settled down 0.5 percent at $1,147.40 an ounce. US stock prices held steady, while the dollar rose 0.6 percent against a basket of currencies, pressuring gold, which is priced in the dollar. "Yellen confirming that the Fed will raise interest rates later this year is nothing new, but nevertheless this helped the dollar to appreciate, which is weighing on the gold price," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said.
"We've also had better-than-expected economic data out of the United States, both before and after Yellen's words, so that is also supporting the dollar." "Greece developments have not had a bullish impact on gold but further glitches in the Greek debt relief process could lend modest support to prices," HSBC said in a note. The value of New York's SPDR Gold Trust, the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell as low as $109.58 per share on Wednesday, the lowest since March 2010. Among other precious metals, silver was down 1.5 percent at $15.12 an ounce, platinum was down 0.5 percent at $1,018.49 an ounce and palladium was up 1.4 percent at $640.75 an ounce.