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Gold fell for a second straight session on Tuesday as a firmer dollar made the greenback-denominated metal more expensive, while investors awaited policy cues from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,774.81 per ounce by 10:17 a.m. ET (1417 GMT), after falling more than 1% on Monday. U.S. gold futures dropped 0.3% to $1,791.90.

The dollar hit a three-week high.

"Gold is facing some exhaustion as the dollar continues to appreciate ahead of Fed minutes... Gold market will be very choppy until we get to the Fed meeting in September," said Edward Moya, senior analyst with OANDA.

The minutes from last month's Fed meeting will be published at 14:00 ET on Wednesday.

"The minutes will likely confirm the belief that aggressive rate hikes are still on the table, which could support dollar and potentially put downward pressure on gold," Moya added.

Recently, several Fed officials highlighted the need to continue raising interest rates to fight persistent inflation. Gold is considered an inflation hedge but higher rates make the non-yielding asset less attractive.

Investors have pulled out of gold exchange-traded funds and that could be weighing on gold too, Bank of China International analyst Xiao Fu said. [GOL/ETF]

But limiting gold's losses to some extent, U.S. Treasury yields slipped. [US/]

Spot silver fell 0.7% to $20.11 per ounce, platinum rose 0.5% to $937.49 and palladium was flat at $2,145.71.

"Amid a lack of major, fresh fundamental news in the marketplace today, traders are focused on the key outside markets that are in an overall bearish posture for the metals," Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals, said in a note.

(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)