gold futures drew some haven bids early thursday as investors reacted to minutes from the federal open market committee on wednesday that showed that monetary policy makers were on track to begin unwinding parts of their easymoney programs later this year minutes from the fed’s july 2728 meeting underscored recent reports that point to a growing desire to roll back monthly buying of 120 billion in treasurys and mortgagebacked securities which may be viewed as a negative for bullion but was also weighing on bullish sentiment in risk assets and underpinning gold purchases on thursday december gold gcz21 gc00 was trading 590 or 03 higher at 179030 an ounce after settling 02 lower on wednesday gains for gold come as us stockindex futures ym00 were pointing to sharp declines for the dow jones industrial average djia  the sp 500 index spx and the nasdaq composite index comp  concerns about the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of covid19 also was pressuring stocks lower as a study from the university of oxford based on realworld data showed diminished effectiveness from coronavirus vaccines to the delta variant trading in gold however was being checked by strength in the us dollar up 02 as measured by the ice us dollar index dxy  a stronger dollar can weigh on appetite for assets priced in the currency like gold “gold was caught between two major forces with the impact of stronger dollar being offset by haven demand” wrote fawad razaqzada market analyst at thinkmarkets in a research note meanwhile the 10year treasury note yield tmubmusd10y was at 122 down 5 basis points highlighting a rush to asset perceived as safe and helping to buoy gold prices because lower yields can help bolster demand for nonyielding metals carlo alberto de casa market analyst at kinesis said “1790 remains a key resistance zone” for gold “a clear surpass of this mark will put gold back in the former trading range of 1790—1820 which contained prices for weeks earlier in july” the analyst wrote