Gold retreats as Fed\\\'s upbeat outlook boosts dollar

SINGAPORE, Jan 29 (Reuters): Gold dropped for the fourth session in five on Thursday after the Federal Reserve painted a bullish picture of the U.S. economy, signalling it was on course to lift interest rates this year.
The prospect of a hike in U.S. rates makes non-interest-bearing assets such as gold less attractive, helping pull bullion further away from a five-month peak reached last week.
"People are already adjusted to the new policy stance and there's no further reason to push up gold to a much higher level," said Mark To, head of research at Hong Kong's Wing Fung Financial Group.
In Wednesday's policy statement, the Fed said the U.S. economy was expanding "at a solid pace" with strong job gains, leaving the central bank on track to raise rates this year. But it repeated it would be "patient" in deciding when to increase benchmark borrowing costs from zero.