PRECIOUS-Gold lingers near 7-month low as Fed hike bets boost dollar

(Rewrites paragraph 1 and updates price as of 1054 GMT)

* Gold trades below key $4,000/oz level

* U.S. PCE data due at 1230 GMT

* Bullion down over 6% since U.S. Fed meet last week

By Sumit Saha

June 25 (Reuters) - Gold fell for a third straight session on Thursday, lingering near a more than seven-month low it had reached in the previous session, as expectations of U.S. rate hikes lifted the dollar and weighed on the precious metal.

Spot gold fell 0.5% to $3,982.49 an ounce by 1054 GMT. U.S. gold futures for August delivery edged 0.3% lower to $3,997.60 per oz.

The U.S. dollar hit its strongest level in more than 13 months on Thursday, making greenback priced-metals more expensive for other currency holders. Markets currently see a 66% chance that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike rates in September, CME FedWatch data showed.

"The Fed's hawkish shift, which has led to a repricing of rate hike expectations, remains the dominant driver of gold's weakness," said Nikos Tzabouras, senior market analyst at Jefferies-owned Tradu.com. ETF outflows and the rotation into equities driven by the AI boom are definitely factors weighing on the precious metal, said Tzabouras, noting that these forces tend to be cyclical and do not subtract from the broader structural case for gold.

Bullion has declined more than 6% since Fed's meeting last week and dipped below the $4,000 level on Wednesday for the first time since November 2025. Prices were down over 28% from its record high of $5,594.82 reached on January 29.

Investors now await the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures data, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, due at 1230 GMT, for further cues on monetary policy. On the geopolitical front, Lebanon and Israel are reviewing a U.S.-backed plan for Israeli forces to hand over parts of Hezbollah-era seized territory to the Lebanese army.

Among other metals, spot silver fell 0.3% to $57.26 per ounce and platinum lost 0.4% to $1,571.95. Palladium inched 1.3% higher to $1,181.46. (Reporting by Sumit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jonathan Ananda)