By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Wednesday morning in Asia, remaining near a seven-week low. A near ten-month highs and rising U.S Treasury yields also applied pressure on the safe-haven asset, with expectations of an earlier-than-expected interest rate hike.

After falling to $1.726.19 on Tuesday, the dollar edged up 0.2% to $1.741.05 at 11:48 ET (3:48 GMT). While the dollar fell on Wednesday, its normal movement was inverted to gold. However, it still remained close to their previous 10-month high.

The benchmark remained close to an over three-month peak as investors also monitoring a after Republicans in the Senate blocked a Democrat move to raise the debt limit.

In their testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, both U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as well U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that a default because of failure to raise debt limit would result in catastrophic consequences. Powell and Yellen are also expected to testify at a House Banking Committee hearing Thursday.

Central bank chiefs, including Powell, the Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey, the Bank of Japan’s Haruhiko Kuroda, and the European Central Bank (ECB)’s Christine Lagarde will also participate in an ECB Forum panel later in the day.

Meanwhile, the fell for a third consecutive month and was at 109.3 in September. In Asia Pacific, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department showed on Tuesday that China’s net gold imports via Hong Kong in August fell modestly from August.

Other precious metals saw silver rise 0.1% and platinum fall 0.1% at $966.03 while palladium rose by 1%.