By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia. However, the yellow metal remained close to multi-month lows, thanks to a strengthening dollar and increasing bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin asset tapering sooner than expected.
Gold futures gained 0.68% to $1,738.25 by 12:05 AM ET (4:05 AM GMT), after falling to their lowest since Mar. 31 on Monday. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched up on Monday and remained near a more-than-two-week high.
U.S. Treasury yields rose to a more than three-week high as strong jobs data from the U.S. pointed towards an improving market. The latest U.S. jobs report, released during the previous week, said non-farm payrolls rose by 943,000 while the unemployment rate declined to 5.4% in July.
Fed officials also hinted that the central bank could begin returning to pre-COVID-19 settings earlier than expected.
Atlanta Fed Bank President Raphael Bostic said on Monday that asset tapering could begin as soon as the fourth quarter, but that it could begin even earlier if the jobs market maintains its recent pace of improvement.
Bostic’s colleague, Boston Fed Bank President Eric Rosengren, said the Fed should announce in September that it will begin reducing its $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage bonds in the fall.
In other precious metals, silver was steady at $23.43 per ounce after falling to an eight-month low during the previous session. Platinum and palladium inched up 0.1% to $980.81 and $2,603.20 respectively.