gold futures on thursday were extending a rise to the highest level in a month briefly touching the 1800 level and heading for the sharpest weekly gain in about five months gains in bullion and other precious metals have come as the us dollar and treasury yields have staged a modest pullback however some analysts believe that gold’s ascent will be capped by the likelihood that treasury yields will eventually resume their climb as the federal reserve kicks off its tapering of monthly purchases of government debt and mortgagebacked securities before yearend at last check december gold gcz21 gc00 was trading at 380 or 01 179850 an ounce in early us trade with intraday high at 180190 following a 2 gain on wednesday which sent mostactive contracts to their highest settlement since sept 15 factset data show if the contract can close above 179480 it will mark it highest close since sept 14 factset data show “although the yellow metal has attempted to rise the momentum is insufficient to achieve significant gains as treasury yields continue to surge as investors expect tapering to begin in 2021” wrote naeem aslam chief market analyst at oanda corp in a daily research note on wednesday minutes from the federal reserve’s most recent policy gathering in september confirmed that centralbank officials discussed a plan to reduce the pace of asset purchases by 15 billion a month and are considering launching reductions next month or the following the fed’s no 2 richard clarida had already signaled earlier this week that the economic recovery from covid19 had essentially met the criteria necessary to announce a reduction of monthly assetpurchases of treasurys and mortgagebacked securities that have been in force since june of 2020 tapering of the fed’s asset purchases and the eventual conclusion of such buys in the middle of 2022 is expected to lift bond yields making government debt more competitive compared against precious metals that don’t offer a coupon moves for precious metals may also encounter some headwinds from a rally in global stocks the dow jones industrial average djia  the sp 500 index spx and the nasdaq composite index comp were all poised to rise solidly on thursday signaling that investors were favoring assets perceived as risky versus those considered havens relatively lowerbound yields suggesting that borrowing costs remain subdued were helping to buoy stocks the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y yields 1535 versus 1549 on wednesday