U.S. gold futures’ most active contract, December, settled down $1.90, or 0.1%, at $1,751.70 per ounce on New York’s Comex. For the week though, it was virtually flat, in fact settling 30 cents higher from last Friday. For the record, it ended flat on the week. Yet, gold wouldn’t fool anyone on what prompt sentiment is for the yellow metal. But to those tracking the market, especially the long investors who have repeatedly been burned following optimistic forecasts of the past nine months, the real weekly comparison should have been against last Wednesday. That was the day when gold lost 2%, its most since early August, as U.S. bond yields spiked and the dollar girded higher as well on speculation of hawkish Federal Reserve action over its economic stimulus and lower-for-longer interest rates. Fed Chair Jay Powell, at the conclusion of the central bank’s monthly policy meeting on Wednesday, repeated his mantra that inflation was trending above the Fed’s target of 2% per annum due to the higher costs of doing business in a pandemic-constrained economy. The market has consistently shown that it has little faith in the Fed to be able restrain inflation and sent bond yields to multiple-year highs since the end of 2020 to reflect that. Gold, a non-yielding asset branded as a safe haven, has been the principal victim of yield hikes.