New Delhi, Sept. 4 -- Gold, a recent star performer for investors, seems to have run into rough times. By Wednesday, its prices had fallen for seven sessions in a row, even as West Asia erupted again in armed hostility between the US and Iran. Such a deterioration in global economic conditions ought to have given gold a lift. Yet, prices fell.

Gold owes this pain to a stronger dollar amid expectations of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. Since it is traded in dollars, greenback gains make non-US purchases of the metal dearer, deterring consumer demand.

Earlier, gold had soared partly as part of the global 'dollar debasement' trade, just as Bitcoin had, but this force may have gotten outweighed by an investor shift to US Treasury and...