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

Gold was down on Thursday morning in Asia, as the minutes released from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting signaled a hawkish stance amid surging COVID-19 cases.

Gold futures were up 0.66% to $1,671.75 by 11:07 PM ET (4:08 AM GMT). The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Thursday morning.

The Fed released the minutes from its December meeting on Wednesday, which signaled that the central bank is likely to hike interest rates quicker than expected. The minutes also said the Fed could accelerate the pace of the bank’s asset tapering to calm high inflation.

On the COVID-19 front, the number of new cases continued to surge with the rolling seven-day average number of new COVID-19 cases hitting 540,000 in the U.S. on Tuesday. Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients in the U.S. have also risen 45% in the past seven days and were at 111,000, a figure last seen in January 2021.

Investors also digested U.S. data, with Tuesday’s ADP nonfarm employment change a much higher-than-expected 807,000 in December. They now await the U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, due on Friday.

Meanwhile, Chinese data released earlier in the day showed that the Caixin services purchasing managers index (PMI) was 53.1 in December.

In other precious metals, silver inched down 0.1% and platinum edged down 0.2%. Palladium stayed unchanged at $1,863.69.