"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat
Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God. – Archbishop Chaput
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The FOMC release this morning basically reaffirmed what most of the market has been thinking for some time now, namely, that the economic "recovery" is proceeding at a moderate pace though "somewhat more slowly" than had previously been expected. What a surprise? It is more like "YAWN".
The translation - they will be keeping interest rates near zero for the next few months, or in their words, "an extended period of time".
They repeated that the QE2 program would come to an end this month but at this point they had no intention of actually reducing their balance sheet or selling any of the $600 billion in Treasuries which they have purchased over the last 6 months or so. What they will do however is to reinvest the proceeds from maturing Treasury bonds. That will give some stimulus but compared to the massive sum of $600 billion, amounts to a drop of water into the bucket.
Gold liked what it heard and shot higher taking out the sellers who had been stalking the $1550 level. They were forced to retreat towards $1560.
From a technical perspective, the strong move past this solid resistance level, takes the market out of the recent tight range trade bounded by $1550 on the top and supported at $1520 on the bottom. It is now poised to make a run towards $1570-$1575. Downside support moves up initially towards $1540 followed by good support near $1530.
Keep in mind that this is occuring during the summer, not a time in which one generally expects to see a very strong gold market. A grinding move higher during this time frame would set this market up for a move to a fresh all time high later this year when the seasonally stronger period of the metal arrives. This just further underscores how currency concerns are moving gold as distrust in paper currencies continues to increase. Gold is signaling investors' lack of confidence in their monetary authorities and political leaders.
By the way, Gold priced in British Pounds set another all time record high price today.
I have fielded quite a bit of emails from people scared out of their minds because of a rash post over at a widely read website which tends to post first and think later. That is the problem with this Wild West of the Internet - too many are interested in "first scoops" and not in arriving at solid conclusions based on analysis.
The regulations which have Forex.com issuing a statement to its clients to close out their gold and silver positions affect US based Retail customers on non-regulated over the counter markets. It will not have any impact on the COMEX market or any other regulated futures markets.
If anything, this will serve to drive more business towards the Comex which is a regulated futures exchange market. The regulations are attempting to stem US-based retail investor activity in non-transparent, non-regulated over-the-counter markets.
Keep in mind that in this day and age, the more "clicks" a website gets, the higher it rises in the "ratings" and the more advertising revenue its owner gets from paid ads. This sort of thoughtless sensationalism is a perfect example of that.
