Title: Gold Down, Fed’s Hawkish Stance Highlighted in Meeting Minutes

Jan 06, 2022 04:46AM ET

By: AnalysisWatch

Gold prices slipped in Asia on Thursday morning as the minutes of the US Federal Reserve meeting signaled a hawkish stance amid the rise in COVID-19 cases.

Gold futures were up 0.66% at $1,671.75 an ounce by 11:07 PM ET (4:08 AM GMT), while the dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, edged higher on Thursday morning.

The Fed released the minutes of its December meeting on Wednesday, which showed the central bank is likely to raise interest rates earlier than expected. The minutes also showed that the Fed may accelerate the pace of asset stripping to calm high inflation.

On a rolling seven-day average, the number of new COVID-19 cases rose to 540,000 in the US on Tuesday. The number of hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients in the US also rose 45% in the past seven days to 111,000, a figure last recorded in January 2021.

Investors have also digested the US data as the ADP employment numbers for December came in well above expectations at 807,000. They now await the US labor market report, which will be released on Friday and will include non-farm payrolls.

Meanwhile, Chinese data released later in the day showed that the Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the services sector came in at 53.1 in December.

In other precious metals, the price of silver fell 0.1%, and platinum was down 0.2%. The palladium price was unchanged at $1,863.69.