Gold down over looming Fed tapering

Gold fell on Monday in Asia amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin its asset tapering in line with its timetable despite the lackluster data in the latest U.S. jobs report.

Gold futures went down 0.14% to $1,754.95 by 12:14 AM ET (4:14 AM GMT). The yellow metal reached a two-week high on Friday after the release of the U.S. jobs report but soon pared down its gains.

The dollar, typically moving inversely to gold, edged up on Monday, while benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields hit their highest level since early June 2021 on Friday.

The U.S. Labor Department released on Friday its latest jobs report, which showed that non-farm payrolls were at 194,000 and the unemployment rate was at 4.8% in September. The Fed is widely expected to start its asset tapering in November this year as COVID-19 cases in the United States peaked and began to decrease.

Meanwhile, SPDR Gold Trust holdings fell 0.2% to 985.05 tons on Friday from 986.54 on Thursday.

In other precious metals, silver and platinum edged down 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively, while palladium gained 2.6%.