Gold Futures Up 0.66%

Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia. However, the yellow metal was set for a third, consecutive weekly fall, weighed down by signs that the U.S. Federal Reserve will quicken the pace of asset tapering and hike interest rates earlier than expected to curb inflationary pressures.

Gold futures were up 0.66% to $1,774.30 by 10:48 PM ET (3:48 AM GMT), after falling to its lowest level in nearly a month on Thursday. Gold has declined 1.3% so far in the week.

The U.S. Federal Reserve continues to reinforce its message that it will quicken the pace of asset tapering. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told the Reuters Next conference on Thursday that it would be appropriate to end the Fed’s bond-buying program by the end of March 2022.

This would give the Fed the option to hike interest rates to deal with inflation, he added.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen added at the conference that it was the Fed’s job to ensure that the current run of high inflation does not evolve into a damaging and long-lasting “wage-price spiral”.

Meanwhile, U.S. data released on Thursday showed that 222,000 initial jobless claims were filed throughout the week. The latest U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, is due later in the day.

In Asia Pacific, China’s Caixin services purchasing managers’ index (PMI), released earlier in the day, was 52.1 in November. Investors also digested the news that Didi Global Inc. (NYSE:DIDI) will delist from the New York Stock Exchange and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

SPDR Gold Trust (P:GLD) said its holdings fell about 0.5% to 986.17 tons on Thursday from Wednesday. In other precious metals, silver and palladium inched up 0.1%, while platinum was down 0.3%.