Palladium hits over one-month high Upbeat gold outlook for first quarter of 2022 -analyst Dec 27 (Reuters) - Gold prices scaled a more than one-week high on Monday, as renewed risks to global economic growth from rising cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant offset pressure from a firmer U.S. dollar. Spot gold was steady at $1,807.50 an ounce by 13:39 EDT (1839 GMT), after hitting its highest since Dec.17 at $1,813.38 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures settled down 0.2% at $1,808.80 per ounce. The outlook for gold in the first quarter of 2022 is upbeat, with the main driver being inflation, which is keeping a floor under prices, said Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Metals. "The underlying support comes from inflation concerns," Wyckoff said, adding "the leanings of the Fed for a little bit tighter monetary policy seems to have assuaged the gold traders a little bit". Non-yielding bullion is often considered a hedge against higher inflation. The dollar index (.DXY) rose from its weakest level in nearly a week, making greenback-priced gold less attractive for holders of non-U.S. currencies. "While there is a firmer U.S. dollar, there isn"t a lot of movement in gold today," said Quantitative Commodity Research analyst Peter Fertig, adding that one of the main reasons for the lack of liquidity is closed markets over Christmas. Higher yields increase the opportunity cost for holding gold, which is weighing a little on gold prices, Fertig added. Although quiet overall this week, "the low liquidity makes headline sensitivity more pronounced, as the thin markets are likely to make for more jittery price action if something were to happen", said DailyFX currency strategist Ilya Spivak. Silver was unchanged at $22.94 per ounce, while platinum fell 0.7% to $967.43. Palladium rose 0.1% to $1,950.24 per ounce, it hit its highest since Nov. 22 earlier in the day. Reporting by Kavya Guduru, Bharat Govind Gautam and Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad; Editing by Uttaresh.V, Alison Williams and Shinjini Ganguli