NEW YORK: Gold prices fell below the key $2,000 level on Wednesday as US yields marched higher, with investors turning more sceptical over potential US rate cuts later this year.

Spot gold was down 0.6% at $1,992.41 per ounce by 12:11 p.m. ET (1611 GMT), having shed as much as 1.8% to a two-week low of $1,969.09 earlier in the session. US gold futures fell 0.8% to $2,004.50.

“Once gold breached that $2,000 mark, there were a lot of stop losses that were triggered,” said Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures in Chicago.

“Anytime you get earnings, you get a lot of people chasing individual stocks and that could also cause them to not invest so much in metal.”

The dollar strengthened, underpinned by US yields climbing to a near one-month high, with markets now pricing in an 85% chance of a 25-basis point rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s May 2-3 meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

Silver was mostly unchanged at $25.21 per ounce, platinum added 0.3% to $1,085.40, while palladium dipped 1.2% to $1,589.58.