gold futures were higher for a second day wednesday even as the precious metal was confronting bearish factors including rising treasury yields and a slight rise in the us dollar during the session december gold gcz21 gc00 climbed by 1050 or 06 to reach 178110 an ounce after rising 03 on tuesday the yellow metal has gotten some traction this week as the dollar has softened with the ice us dollar index dxy  down 01 so far this week while gold was headed for a weekly advance of 06 factset data show a weaker dollar can make assets priced in the currency more attractive for buyers using other currencies lackluster us housing data on tuesday was blamed for contributing to weakness in the greenback a day ago however analysts are expecting gold to eventually face stiffening headwinds from the federal reserve if the central bank is compelled to lift benchmark interest rates faster than had been previously anticipated to cool a rise in inflation “much has been said about the concerns over high inflation and how in such a scenario the tightening of policies by the federal reserve is likely to support the dollar and due to the inverted correlation between the two assets generate weakness for the precious metal” write ricardo evangelista senior analyst at activtrade in a wednesday note worries about a quicker pace of interest rate increases with expectations growing that the fed will commence a rollback of its covidera asset purchases has pushed the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y to its highest rate in about five months