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 Plc.

“The taper tantrum trade is hitting gold the hardest right now and could last a couple more sessions,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. “Gold looks like a falling knife but eventually the longer-term prospects will attract buyers. Long-term bets on gold could start to emerge closer to the $1,750 level, but some might wait and see if one last thrust lower eyes the $1,675 level. ”

While the Fed sped up their expected pace of policy tightening, Powell cautioned that discussions about raising interest rates would be “highly premature.”

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,778.09 an ounce at 8:52 a.m. in Singapore, after tumbling to $1,767.34 on Thursday, the lowest since May 3. Prices are down 5.3% this week, the most since March 2020. Silver, palladium and platinum all advanced. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slipped 0.1% to pare this week’s gain to 1.5%.