Precious metals had been dipping for days, but on Wednesday, commodities, stocks and bonds began to rally after the Federal Reserve’s decision to continue its $85 billion bond-buying program.
With the economy improving slower than the Fed had hoped, policymakers voted to continue monthly purchases until progress of the economy could be sustained.
Back in June, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke mapped out a plan to begin the tapering of quantitative easing as soon as 2013 with hopes to end it by mid-2014. The only hold-back was the economy and employment improving at a necessary pace.
The original plan had September as the estimated date to being tapering. Instead, September will see no change in the process and the strategy will remain in place for at least another month when the Federal Open Market Committee will re-evaluate the situation.
Since the Fed released their decision, gold, silver, platinum and palladium are all soaring. As of this writing, gold had jumped $55.80 to $1,366.68 per ounce and is the highest gain in the market. Stocks also hit record highs.
The current economic forecast is slightly darker than originally thought, but Fed officials are optimistic of a brighter future after 2014. Their continued goal is to keep interest rates at a minimum until unemployment falls, but many officials expect the rates to remain low through 2015.
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