The Federal Open Market Committee’s July 31-August 1 meeting minutes revealed that a number of members were in favor of taking additional steps to ramp up domestic economic growth shortly, failing some unexpected improvement all around. The news sent gold shooting up to its highest in over four months, while platinum kept up its streak. S & P’s GSCI Spot Index, which tracks 24 commodities, also rose to its highest level since early May.
From Bloomberg:
“Gold is exploding today as inflation concerns are back,” Adam Klopfenstein, the senior market strategist at Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “A combination of rising commodity prices and the chances of more easing coming in the U.S. is stoking inflation worries.”
Gold futures for December jumped to $1,672.80 per ounce just after 1:30 on the Comex, New York, an increase of 2 percent. It also meant that gold peaked above the 200-day moving average on Wednesday, marking the first such occurrence since March.
Silver futures for December also rose to $30.542 per ounce, or 3 percent. Platinum futures for October rose to $1,554.90 per ounce, or 1.9 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which keeps up platinum’s sixth session of price increases. Palladium futures for September shot up 4.4 percent to hit $656.60 per ounce, which is the biggest gain so far this year.
