By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, hitting a near two-week peak as the dollar weakened and offset bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin asset tapering soon.

After hitting $1,765.54, the climbed 0.15% to $1761 at 10:21 ET (21:21 GMT). Normally, the and moves in inverse proportion to gold. However, it fell to its lowest level since September 29.

According to the Philadelphia Fed Bank president, it is possible that the Fed will meet its inflation mandate to raise interest rates. However, he added that it could be a year or longer before the central bank’s employment goal is met to allow for an interest rate hike.

Harker’s colleague, Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester, said on Friday that conditions for interest rate hikes could be met by the end-2022, with inflation expected to come back down to the Fed’s target in 2022.

Investors are also awaiting a series of policy decisions from the central bank. The handing down of its policy decision will occur on Tuesday and Friday.

SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE) reported its holdings falling 0.4% on Friday to 986.54 tons. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data on Friday showed that net long positions were reduced by 19,471 contracts, to 42.123, in the week up to Sep. 28.

Meanwhile, physical gold demand also rose last week in China’s top consumer, while activity increased elsewhere in Asia, such as Singapore.

The other precious metals were silver, platinum, and palladium up 0.4%.