The mini-taper

As the US fed sits behind closed doors mulling over the highly-anticipated stimulus tapering plan, gold is losing some of its fan base.

The precious metal moved down to $1,309 per ounce by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, halfway in to the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Investors are selling on expectations that the FOMC will announce a slow-down of the $85 billion per month bond purchasing scheme.

Gold price September 17

But analysts threw out a life-line, speculating that tapering won’t be so extreme – a $10 billion reduction per month.

According to one report by Kitco News, bullion may even rise following FOMC’s decision on Wednesday because the market is already expecting a taper.

Gary Wagner told Kitco’s Daniela Cambone that stimulus reduction is a question of “not so much if but when and how much.”

A bond-purchasing slow-down may not have the same pull on gold as it has over the past few months.

“We’ve actually seen the market begin to factor that in,” Wagner said.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs took a less optimistic tone with gold, noting its “neutral” stance. The investment firm also maintained its view that the precious metal will hit new lows in 2014.

Creative Commons image by: flattop341