Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Gold Surges As Fed Scales Back Expectations For Rate Hikes

By Kira Brecht of Kitco News
Wednesday March 18, 2015 2:30 PM
(Kitco News) - Gold futures prices surged higher in electronic trading after the release of the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement on Wednesday. While the Fed did remove the word "patient" from its statement, analysts pointed to a bevy of other surprises which have sent the U.S. dollar tumbling and gold rising.
In the statement, the Fed lowered its U.S. gross domestic product growth and inflation forecasts in its Summary of Economic Projections and it cut the amount of rate increases it expects to see this year.
April Comex gold futures climbed as high as $1,170 per ounce a $21.30 gain in the wake of the news.
"Clearly dropping the word patient was the least significant thing in the whole statement," said Bill O'Neil, a principal with LOGIC Advisors. "This indicates rates are going to remain low and I think it totally rules out a rate hike in June," he said.
Pointing to the jump in gold prices, Sean Lusk, director commercial hedging division at Walsh Trading said: "we are seeing a lot of short-covering coming into the market.  This could surge another $10-$15 before we are all said and done."

No comments:

Post a Comment