By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia, but was set for its best week in more than five months. Declines in both the and U.S. Treasury yields also capped the yellow metal’s losses even as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to begin asset tapering.

After hitting an all-time high of $1800.12 last Thursday, the price dropped 0.11% to $1.795.95 at 11:55 ET (3:55 GMT). The dollar is currently up 2.1% in the past week. On Friday, the dollar, which is normally inversely related to gold, climbed a little.

Although the recovery in the U.S. job market is widely viewed as sufficient for the Fed to begin tapering as planned in November 2021, divisions remain even among the central bank’s officials.

Global policymakers should continue to monitor pricing dynamics closely, but also “look through” inflationary pressures that are transitory and will fade as economies normalize, the said on Thursday.

U.S. data on Thursday revealed that the rose 0.5% in September month-on-month and that a lower number of 293,000 I were filed during the week. Later in the day, additional data will be made available, such as as well as the and.

Meanwhile, miner Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE:) Thursday’s report showed a nearly 5% increase in third quarter gold production compared to the three previous months. This was due to an increased output from its Veladero Mine in Argentina.

Other precious metals saw silver fall 0.4% to $23.45/ounce. However, it experienced its greatest weekly gain in seven. After hitting $1,062.50 Thursday on Aug. 2, platinum fell 0.1% to $1054.09 while palladium gained 0.2%.