NEW YORK—Gold futures retreated as investors worried that the Federal Reserve may cut short the easy-money policies that helped drive prices of the precious metal to record highs in recent years.

The most actively traded gold contract, for February delivery, settled down $25.70, or 1.5%, at $1,648.90 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month contract, for January, fell 1.5% to settle at $1,648.10 an ounce.

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