Silver is pressured in face of a hawkish Fed and the US dollar reaching fresh 2022 highs

• Precious metals are being traded with the Fed in mind. 
• The US dollar prevails as US yields continue to move higher, weighing on silver prices.

The price of silver was under pressure in mid-afternoon US session trade following a rise in the US dollar. At the time of writing, XAG/USD is down some 0.9% after sliding from a high of $24.9485 to a low of $24.2976 so far.

The greenback is higher after comments from Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard spooked investors about potential aggressive actions by the Fed and in anticipation of hawkish minutes tomorrow. 

US Treasury yields rose to multi-year highs with yields taking off after Brainard's comments and the DXY, an index that measures the greenback vs a basket of currencies, ran up to test 99.50 to print a fresh high for 2022 at 99.493. 

The market right now is focused on the Fed's intentions for its balance sheet and Brainard said  the central bank could start reducing its balance sheet as soon as May and would be doing so at “a rapid pace.” She also indicated that interest rate hikes could come at a more aggressive pace than the typical increments of 0.25 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the Fed officials began the process of policy normalization by lifting rates 25bp to 0.25%-0.50% at the March meeting and on Wednesday the minutes of that meeting will be released.

''The FOMC pull no hawkish punches in its policy guidance, with Chair Powell also hinting further information about QT plans will be provided in the minutes (possibly including caps details). We continue to expect an official QT announcement at the May FOMC meeting,'' analysts at TD Securities said.