Bernanke the Decepticon Helicopter

[phantom_opera]

He is really good at keeping market flat, this includes everything like gold, silver, USD, Dow ....

The published FOMC meeting simply just hint at end of QE in 2013, gold crashed, USD up

In Asian trade, Gold down further to 1647

[Laguna]

that is why I wonder, why people buy those things like Geneva Gold, Gold Guarantee
The latest is in the poor cousin

[phantom_opera]

Bernanke intention is very clear ... he wants low volatility in every single asset class ... everything plus minus 5% in 2013

it even has effect on China market

[indomie]

Bernanke intention is very clear ... he wants low volatility in every single asset class ... everything plus minus 5% in 2013

it even has effect on China market

He has to defend the value of USD (or whatever left of it). He cannot be seen as desperate. Low volatility will makes people believe the stability of USD. He is hopeful that u or me believe enough to the value of USD to hold down to it.

[roly8]

interesting..

[phantom_opera]

USD up, Gold/Silver down

Spot FX EUR/USD
1.30066
1.30074

Spot Gold
1641.25
1641.75

-22.60

Spot Silver (5000oz)
2939.8
2942.8

-75

[phantom_opera]

Gold fell 2 percent to a 4-1/2 month low on Friday after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve highlighted increasing concerns over its highly stimulative monetary policy, knocking stock markets lower and boosting the dollar.

Fears that central banks' money-printing to buy assets will stoke inflation had been a key driver in boosting gold, which rallied to an 11-month high in early October after the Fed announced its third round of aggressive economic stimulus.

Cash gold fell to its lowest since late August at $1,629.59 an ounce,and was heading for its sixth week of losses - the longest such run since June 1999. Gold was down 1.9 percent at $1,631.60 per ounce by Friday morning.

U.S. gold futures for February fell 2.6 percent or $43.50 an ounce to $1,631.10.

"The market had been too preoccupied with the sheer size of the quantitative easing program, and had not seen that at some point you would need a phase out of QE policy," Christin Tuxen, an analyst with Danske Bank, said.


"The timing will be earlier than the market had been initially expecting, which is negative for gold."

Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting showed some voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were increasingly worried about the potential risks of the Fed's asset purchases on financial markets.

Ultra-loose monetary policy implemented by leading central banks had fueled gold's rally as a climate of historically low interest rates heightened inflationary fears.

Recent positive U.S. economic data has fueled the view that further steps to stimulate the economy may be unnecessary. Investors are keenly awaiting U.S. non-farm payrolls data due at 08:30 ET on Friday for a clue to the pace of economic recovery.

The figures are expected to show the economy added 150,000 jobs last month, after adding 146,000 in November. Tuxen said that if the payrolls data reveals that the economy added at least 200,000 jobs, gold prices could extend losses.

Chart Support Gives Way

Technical analysts, who study past chart patterns to determine future moves in prices, say the failure of key support at $1,635 could lead to a further retracement.

"Since the peak we saw in early October we've been in a downtrend," Cliff Green of the Cliff Green Consultancy said. "The rally from $1,635 to $1,695 has always been just a correction within that downtrend, and this (current move) is a resumption of that."

"If we break (support around $1,635), we're vulnerable to a movement downtoward the $1,600 area," he added. "Our short- to medium-term outlook isbearish. We've had a good correction against that trend, which looks complete,and now we're resuming that downward path."

Among exchange-traded funds, the SPDR Gold Trust reported an outflow of 9.638 T yesterday, the biggest one-day decline in its holdings since Sept.26.

Lower prices spurred buying from jewelers in Asia, keeping premiums for gold bars steady in Singapore at $1.10 to $1.20 to spot London prices.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange will lower trading margins and daily trade limitsfor its gold and silver forward contracts to meet growing investor demand, thebourse said on Friday.

Among other precious metals, silver was down 3 percent to $29.24 an ounce, having also slipped to a 4-1/2 month low at $29.21 in earlier trade.

Silver's under performance made the metal its cheapest compared to gold since late August, with 55.76 ounces of silver now equivalent to one ounce of gold,against 50.4 in early December.

Platinum group metals also fell, although they outperformed gold and silver. Platinum fell 1.1 percent to $1,541.25 and palladium slipped 1.4 percent to $680.25 an ounce.

=> tonight Dow will chiong if non-farm payroll data is good ...