Gold was little changed on Wednesday – changing hands for $1,713 an ounce in late trade in New York – despite the momentous announcement by the chairman of the Federal Reserve fundamentally changing US monetary policy.
Ben Bernanke said that the central bank will now target specific employment (6.5%) and inflation numbers (2.5%) when deciding on policy, a huge change.
But what should have boosted the price of gold is that Fed’s bond-buying program has been upped by $45 billion, bringing total asset purchases to an eye-watering $85 billion a month. And that it expects rates will be near zero until mid-2015.
In the past any mention or even a hint of increased or extended quantitative easing would send investors piling into gold. Anything to the contrary and they would run for the exits.
Not today.
After small swings up and down during Bernanke’s comments, gold quickly settled back in its low $1,700s trading range.
The Fed’s flooding of markets with cheap money under QE1 kicked off on 16 December 2008. On 15 December 2008 an ounce of gold cost $837.50.
Granted, gold has doubled thanks to the Fed’s money-printing.
But if you look at today’s lackluster reaction from gold it seems the Fed’s actions will no longer move gold any higher.
9 Comments
dencko
Useless article, I agree. Gold price did not JUMP on the latest QE3 announcement ? So what. Just wait and you will see it go up to the levels unhinkable before. Problem is that all the future rise will not be that great because the $ you will get for gold then will be inflated as well. But even after inflation adj it will still prove to be good investment.
Vinnie
I feel dumber now that I read this article.
John
Yea! Lets see what happens in the next 18 months not 18 hours.
doomz78
Gold is being manipulated wich is killing the mining companies. Which is restricting new supply. Over years gold has no choice but to go up. China seems to realise this. And this article is lacking in information. So what could move the price of gold higher? What are the fundamentals of gold. Seems like the gods (JP morgan, Goldman Sachs,… The fed) Want gold to move in opposition to common sense. The article seems to have missed all of this. And how come the fed cant supposedly move the price of gold anymore? This guy writes articles????? wow. Shill.. Is it John Nadler of Kitco in disguise???lol
Mark Harder
Seems to me that this site, and others that attempt to read commodities, esp. gold, markets are subject to dramatic predictions made on the basis of very little real knowledge. Sort of like Mark Twain’s remark about his amazement in learning how science can draw breathtaking conclusions from so little investment in the facts. Small perturbations in the economy are said to portend earth shaking changes in commodity pricing. So, naturally, when the wizards predict how the market should react to the latest Bernanke pronouncement and it doesn’t, that too must mean something enormous. This is good for wizards, since their ideas are immensely important no matter what happens. When the Mayan calender cycle ends in a few days and absolutely nothing happens, that too will have cosmic implications, which we should learn about by subscribing to somebody’s newsletter. Speaking of which, how will the Mayan calendar affect gold? Inquiring minds want to know.
david rogers
Does this guy realize that gold is manipulated? Manipulated as in an undeniable, all the proof you could possibly want, kind of way? He seems to assume because the price didnt take off after the announcement that the gold bull is finally slain. Neither did the goldprice skyrocket immediately after QE1 and 2, though it eventually went on to tack on 20 and 30% gains. The manipulators play their paper games on COMEX and in GLD meanwhile they loose tons of gold via the LBMA. Like the London Gold Pool of the late 60s which attempted to prop up the unsustainable Bretton Woods scheme, so these silly sad shenangians will also fold as gold skyrockets in debased dollars. I agree, ”Frickles” might be Nadler incognito…
mike
But you just wrote an article on how Obama’s re-election would be good for gold prices? This is one of the worst sites for mining news, all the writers know nothing about what they are writing about.
Teddy
In my opinion it just shows how irrelevant the Fed and Ben Bernanke are in relation to the price of gold.
The price of gold will move when demand makes it do so, regardless of the manipulation which can only hold it for so long.
As someone else noted, regulations and government costs are restricting the mining of gold so at some stage the dam will burst and the markets understand that all the micro management will eventually collapse
doomz78
Your short sightedness is annoying. MANIPULATION. What people sold off gold cause of their renewed faith in fiat us dollars on QE announcement,?????? Simple. Price controls.