By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, while U.S. Treasury yields rose thanks to hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Markets are also beginning to price in a sooner-than-anticipated reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet.

The price of $1,819.40 rose 0.16% by 11:36 ET (or 4:36 GMT) The benchmark 10-year U.S Treasury yields remained close to the two-year peak reached during week précédent.

Jerome Powell, Fed chairman, said during his U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing last week that the U.S. was ready for tighter monetary policy. Others have indicated, too that Fed officials are likely to raise interest rates by March 2022.

On Jan. 25-26, the Fed will hold a meeting to decide its policy. The Fed’s decision will be made on February 3.

The Asia Pacific will announce its most recent policy decision Tuesday.

Another release earlier today showed that GDP rose 4% in some regions and 1.6% during the fourth quarter. The data also revealed that the GDP grew by 4.3% and 1.7% respectively in 2018, while it was 5.1%.

The People’s Bank of China, in a surprise move, also cut borrowing costs for medium-term loans for the first time since April 2020.

Due to increasing prices and the number of COVID-19-related cases, India’s physical gold purchases fell during week one. China is a major consumer of yellow metal and demand has stabilized with the approaching Lunar New Year.

The other precious metals were silver, platinum, and palladium all fell 0.3%.