By Gina Lee

– Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia and was set for its best weekly gain since November 2021. Investors await U.S. data that could provide clarity regarding U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy, while a weakening dollar Index and U.S. Treasury yields also provided support.

Gold futures were up 0.28% to $1,826.45 by 10:26 PM ET (3:26 AM GMT), but the safe-haven asset has climbed 1.4% so far in the week.

The dollar, which normally trades inversely to gold, was down on Friday. Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields retreated from the two-year highs hit earlier in the week.

Lael Brainard on Thursday became the latest and most senior Fed official to signal that the Fed is getting ready to start raising interest rates in March 2022 at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing for her vice-chair nomination. New York Fed President John Williams will also speak later in the day.

Meanwhile, data released on Thursday showed that the U.S. producer price index (PPI) grew 9.7% year-on-year and 0.2% month-on-month in December. The core PPI grew 0.5% month-on-month and 8.3% year-on-year. The number of initial jobless claims was also higher than expected at 230,000 for the week.

Further data, including core retail sales and industrial production, is due later in the day. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), Citigroup Inc .(NYSE:C), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) will also report their earnings.

In Asia Pacific, Chinese data released earlier in the day showed that exports grew 20.9% year-on-year, imports grew 19.5% year-on-year, and the trade balance was at $94.46 billion, in December.

The Bank of Korea handed down its latest policy decision earlier in the day, where it raised its interest rate to 1.25%.

In other precious metals, silver edged down 0.2%, while platinum inched up 0.1% and palladium gained 0.4%.