QE3 DECISION ANTICIPATED AT 12:30 P.M. (EDT)
Gold and Silver prices are mostly flat this morning as investors await a Federal Reserve monetary policy decision. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled for a press conference at 2:15 p.m. (EDT), though the policy decision should be out closer to 12:30 p.m. (EDT). David Morrison of GFT Markets believes that the markets have “priced in significant action from the (Fed). The expectation is for a further round of large-scale asset purchases similar to 2010’s $600 billion QE2 program.” He continued, “The language accompanying another round of quantitative easing will be all-important” because if the Fed decides to wait, the markets could be in for disappointment.
Prices remained stable after the weekly jobless claims report was released. Claims rose by 15,000 last week, about 12,000 more than expected. Guy Berger of RBS Securities Inc. said, “The labor market continues to be disappointing. We’d like to see the hiring side pick up. Companies are very cautious given all the uncertainty.”
One of the countries hit hardest by the eurozone debt crisis is Spain, which boasts the third-largest economy in the eurozone. Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy suggested to parliament yesterday that Spain may not need to ask for a bailout due to the success of the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program. Many experts believe a bailout will be necessary eventually, however, and the delay in asking for one could prove to make things worse by way of conditions for receiving bailout funds. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote, “The more the Spanish administration indulges domestic political interests and is perceived to be taking undue advantage of external support, the more explicit conditionality is likely to be demanded.”
At 9 a.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:
- Gold, $1,734.40, Up $1.70.
- Silver, $33.21, Down $0.09.
- Platinum, $1,661.40, Up $10.80.
- Palladium, $684.60, Up $5.30.
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