Gold headed for the biggest weekly loss in 15 months as the Federal Reserve’s hawkish tilt sent the dollar surging

fficials signaled monetary policy tightening could start earlier than expected, with Chair Jerome Powell saying that the central bank would begin a discussion about scaling back bond purchases used to support financial markets and the economy during the pandemic.

The surprisingly hawkish Fed shift of bringing forward the start of rate hikes puts it on course to formally announce tapering at their September gathering and begin to slow its $120-billion in monthly bond buying in November, according to economists at Barclays.

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