Metals Hold Gains, Fed’s Rosengren Chimes in on QE

Gold and silver futures maintained the large majority of their gains this afternoon as the recent rebound in precious metals continued on Tuesday.

COMEX gold for February delivery settled higher by $14.50, or 0.9%, at $1,683.90 per ounce.  Silver fared a bit better, as the COMEX March contract closed up by $0.42, or 1.4%, at $31.53 per ounce.

As for other metals, platinum futures jumped 1.9% to $1,689.90 per ounce while palladium added 1.4% to $713.35 per ounce.

Precious metals held their gains despite a less-dovish speech than expected this afternoon by Eric Rosengren, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). According to MarketWatch, he stated that the Fed should consider concluding its quantitative easing (QE) measures if the U.S. unemployment rate declines to 7.25% from its current level of 7.8%.

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Although not directly comparable, the Fed mentioned at its most recent FOMC meeting that it would consider raising the Fed funds rate if the unemployment rate were to drop to 6.5%.

Nonetheless, Rosengren reiterated that the U.S. economy’s sluggish growth continues to necessitate QE at the present time.  ”Current inflation is somewhat below our 2% target, and unemployment is well above a longer-run sustainable rate,” he added.