Gold soared on Thursday amid news that the Fed will maintain a super-soft monetary policy. Its chairman, Jerome Powell, revealed that the central bank does not have a slightest concern about inflation, so it will maintain its current policies to achieve full employment and target rates of price increases.
Following this, April gold futures on COMEX rose by 1.22%, hitting $ 1,748.05 per troy ounce. Meanwhile, May silver futures rose 2% and reached $ 26,578 an ounce.
A day earlier, the rate of these futures were not that good. In fact, on Wednesday, April gold futures was down by 0.2% and amounts $ 1,727.10 per troy ounce. As for May silver futures, it gained 0.2% and closed at $ 26.06 an ounce. May copper futures, meanwhile, jumped by 1.2% and hit $ 4.12 a pound. April platinum futures also slipped, but by approximately 1.6%, It traded at $ 1199.30 an ounce. June palladium futures, on the other hand, jumped by 1.9% and closed at $ 2538.30 an ounce.
Going back to the US Fed, they decided to maintain the base interest rate at 0-0.25% per annum. But economic forecasts were revised for the better, which is very uplifting. More specifically, the Fed predicts the US GDP to grow by 6.5% this year, which is obviously better than the previous forecasts. Next year, it should soar by 3.3%. In terms of unemployment, figures should drop by 4.5% this year, and by 3.9% next year. Inflation should also increase by 2.4%, and by 2% in 2022.
Of course, all this resulted in the weakening of the US dollar. Accordingly, the price of gold rushed up.
Yields on 5-year and 10-year US bonds are also in the red, balancing near -1.7% and -0.7%, respectively. These indicate that there are no opportunity costs when investing in precious metals.
Analysts also believe that the increase in Treasury yields are caused by high inflationary expectations, not by a tangible rise in real interest rates.
In addition, the US dollar, which has been gaining just recently, is now close to three-year lows and may continue to decline amid soft monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. This just proves that there is no reason for gold to decrease in the short term.
In fact, in ICE, the dollar index sank by 0.2% after the announcement of the Fed's decisions.
Yield on 10-year US bonds, although steadily hitting new all-time highs recently, also declined strongly after the Fed revealed its policy decisions.