By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, and was poised for its second weekly gain. A dollar trending downwards provided some relief from higher U.S. bond yields and increasing bets that central banks globally could soon begin asset tapering.
Gold futures were up 0.35% to $1,788.15 by 11:47 PM ET (3:47 AM GMT). The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched down on Friday.
Gold has traded in a broad $1,749 to $1,800 range in the month to date, with gains capped by a steep rally in U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields.
The U.S. Federal Reserve should let its $8 trillion balance sheet reduce over the next couple of years, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday. His colleague, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, said he expects high inflation to persist into 2022 and the U.S. central bank should raise interest rates by the end of 2022. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will also take part in a policy panel discussion later in the day.
In Asia Pacific, the Bank of Japan is deliberating whether to phase out a COVID-19 loan program should the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continue to fall, according to Reuters. The central bank could potentially exit a key crisis mode policy sooner than expected if it decides to phase the program out.
Meanwhile, Japan’s national core consumer price index (CPI) grew 0.1% year-on-year in September, according to data released in Japan earlier in the day. The data also showed that national CPI grew 0.4% month-on-month and 0.2% year-on-year.
In other precious metals, silver edged up 0.2% to $24.18 an ounce and was on track for its fifth consecutive weekly gain. Platinum gained 0.5% and palladium jumped 1%.