UNITED STATES November 26 2016 6:23 PM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): United States gold scrap prices dropped on Wednesday in line with gold futures prices at New York Mercantile Exchange, weakening after a deluge of U.S. economic data did little to dampen expectations of a rate increase by the Federal Reserve as early as next month.

The major gold scrap commodities on the Scrap Register Price Index continued to trade down on Wednesday. The 9ct hallmarked gold scrap prices declined to $388.485 an ounce and 14ct hallmarked gold scrap prices dropped to $606.037 an ounce. The 18ct hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct hallmarked gold scrap prices also traded down at $776.97 ounce and $948.939 an ounce respectively. 

According to Scrap Register Price Index, the 9ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices also dropped to $367.459 an ounce and 14ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices down to $573.236 an ounce on Wednesday. The 18ct non-hallmarked gold scrap and 22ct non-hallmarked gold scrap prices are also traded lower at $734.918 an ounce and $897.579 an ounce respectively.

However, the most active December gold contract on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled down by $3.80 an ounce to $1.070 an ounce on Wednesday.

Gold settled down on pressure from a rebounding dollar after strong U.S. economic data heightened expectations of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve next month. 

But the downside was capped by retail demand emerging on tension between Turkey and Russia. Turkey shot down the Russian jet near the Syrian border on Tuesday, saying the plane had violated its air space, in one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century.