Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia, extending small gains into a third session thanks to a weakening dollar.
Gold futures edged up 0.12% to $1,787 by 12:02 AM ET (4:02 AM GMT), sticking within the $1,759 to $1,788 range that the yellow metal has traded in throughout the week. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched down on Thursday and helped gold trade at the higher end of the range.
Two U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday while asset tapering should begin soon, it was too soon to hike interest rates. Fed Governor Randal Quarles said he favors an initial move to begin asset tapering in November 2021, but added that mounting inflationary pressures that could require a policy response were also a concern.
Across the Atlantic, the Bank of England is likely to be the first major central bank to hike interest rates in the post-COVID-19 cycle. However, some economists are forecasting the first hike to come in early 2022, later than current market predictions, according to Reuters.
Russia’s gold reserves stood at 73.9 million troy ounces as of the start of October, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation said on Wednesday.
In other precious metals, silver was up 0.3% and platinum inched up 0.1%, while palladium was down 0.3%. Russia’s Nornickel, the largest palladium producer globally, said its palladium production in the third quarter increased 9% to 598,000 troy ounces. Meanwhile, platinum output increased 8% to 145,000 troy ounces.
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