Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Gold shakes off Fed fears to post gains

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Gold returned to positive territory on Wednesday, ahead of an announcement later in the day from the Federal Reserve as to whether the central bank will keep its pedal pressed to the floor with its bond-buying program.

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Aside from a few outliers, the general consensus was that no tapering of the Fed's monthly bond purchases would be put into action just yet.

Just 11% of fund managers were forecasting that Wednesday's Fed decision, due at 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, would feature a tapering. Meanwhile, 32% expected the Fed to begin tapering in January, and 42% tipped such a move in March. Read more from The Tell .

Ahead of the decision Wednesday, gold for February delivery (GCG4)  added $2.50, or 0.2%, to $1,233.60 an ounce, while March silver (SIH4)  tacked on 7 cents, or 0.3%, to $19.91 an ounce.

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"It is unclear at this stage what impact the Fed statement will have on the markets, but we may not get any adverse reactions one way or the other in most markets, as most investors may have already started to discount some imminent tapering, with the only question being when," INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir wrote in a note to clients.

A day earlier, gold futures saw their modest two-day winning streak come to an end, closing the New York Mercantile Exchange session with a loss of more than 1%.

Elsewhere in metals trading, January platinum (PLF4)   jumped $5.50, or 0.4%, to $1,350.10 an ounce, while March palladium (PAH4)  rose 95 cents, or 0.1%, to $702.

High-grade copper for March delivery (HGH4)  dipped a penny, or 0.3%, to $3.31 a pound.

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