By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, while U.S. Treasury yields rose thanks to hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Markets are also beginning to price in a sooner-than-anticipated reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet.
Gold futures edged up 0.16% to $1,819.40 by 11:36 PM ET (4:36 AM GMT). Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields also remained near two-year highs hit during the previous week.
In his U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing that took place during the previous week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. economy is ready for the start of tighter monetary policy. Other Fed officials have also indicated that the central bank is likely to hike interest rates in March 2022.
The Fed will meet to hand down its next policy decision on Jan. 25 to 26, while the Bank of England will hand down its decision on Feb. 3.
In Asia Pacific, the Bank of Japan will hand down its latest policy decision on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in the region, Chinese data released earlier in the day showed that the GDP grew 4% year-on-year and 1.6% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021. It also showed that industrial production grew 4.3% year-on-year and retail sales grew 1.7% year-on-year in December, while the unemployment rate was at 5.1%.
The People’s Bank of China, in a surprise move, also cut borrowing costs for medium-term loans for the first time since April 2020.
Meanwhile, physical gold buying dropped in India during the previous week thanks to rising prices and numbers of COVID-19 cases. In China, a top consumer of the yellow metal, demand stabilized as the Lunar New Year holiday approaches.
In other precious metals, silver and platinum were down 0.3%, and palladium fell 0.4%.
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