Title: Gold Up, Dollar Strengthens as Bets of Earlier Interest Rate Hikes Increase

11/19/2021 11:52PM GMT

By: AnalysisWatch

Gold rose in Asia on Friday morning, but faced its first weekly decline in three years as central banks are expected to raise interest rates faster than expected to curb rising inflation.

At 11:50 p.m. ET (4:50 a.m. GMT), gold futures were up 0.16% at $1,864.45 an ounce.The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, rose slightly on Friday.

The US Federal Reserve is now considering earlier rate hikes as inflation continues to rise and the COVID-19 economic recovery continues. The previous week's data also showed inflation rose to its highest level in 30 years in October.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, who is among the central bank's most cautious policymakers, said on Thursday he was "open" to adjusting monetary policy in 2022 if inflation remained high. Evans added that a rate hike in 2022 might be appropriate if high inflation continues, although he expects the opposite.

Meanwhile, data on Thursday showed that 268,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits were filed in the US during the week. Although the figure was close to pre-COVID levels, it was higher than the 260,000 that Investing.com had forecast. Labour shortages continue to be an obstacle to faster job growth.

In Asia-Pacific, Japan is preparing to put together a record $490 billion spending package to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19.

China imported more gold from Switzerland in October than in June, the highest level since June 2018, Swiss customs data showed. The data also showed gold shipments to India fell slightly in September.

Among other precious metals, silver rose 0.4% but faced its first weekly decline in three weeks. Platinum rose 0.95 % and palladium gained 0.5 %.