Gold News & Info

Source: Dr. Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin— Gold closed 1.2% lower, extending last week's Fed-inspired sell-off, before abruptly regaining more than half of the loss after hours following comments by Fed officials in support of monetary easing. New York Fed President William Dudley, speaking in Switzerland, said the U.S. has fallen short of its employment and inflation objectives because monetary policy has not been accommodative enough. Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, denying that the FOMC has become more hawkish in policy, said QE should continue at its current pace until unemployment drops below 7%.

Precious metals, Treasurys, and U.S. equities all hit the skids last week after Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said quantitative easing, the program of buying $85 billion in long-term bonds each month, could end by mid-2014. Today's reassurances about monetary policy helped all three markets reverse losses, and caused the dollar to drop for the first time in four sessions. Under additional pressure from lowered forecasts by Goldman Sachs and concerns about the economic slowdown in China, gold had fallen as low as $1,275 before bouncing back to $1,282 in electronic trade. Silver fell 2.4% before rebounding 1% after hours. Platinum and palladium closed lower by 3% and 2.5%, respectively.

At the Comex close: August god fell $14.90 to $1,277; July silver lost 47 cents to $19.49; July platinum dropped $40.40 to $1,329.10, and September palladium shed $17.10 to $657.85 an ounce.