Daily Gold Update

Source: Dr. Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin— Gold gained 0.6% to close above $1,324 before nearly doubling those gains after hours, rising as high as $1,331 in electronic trade following the release of dovish minutes from the June FOMC meeting. Equities also gained on the expectation of continued easy money policies, with the Dow and S&P 500 recouping 0.5%.

As expected, the Fed said it plans to wind down the asset-buying program known as quantitative easing, by around October. However, the minutes also show that the central bank plans hold interest rates near zero for a "considerable time" after QE ends, with no timetable to for reducing its huge balance sheet. QE has boosted asset markets like equities and gold by flooding the economy with more than $4.3 trillion since 2008. Traders viewed the minutes as underscoring the Fed's comfort with maintaining accommodative monetary policies that run the risk of long-term inflation.

The other precious metals were mostly higher. Silver closed up 0.3% and then tripled that gain after hours. Platinum finished 0.7% higher while palladium slipped less than 0.1%.

At the Comex close: August gold gained $7.80 to $1,324.30; September silver added nearly 6 cents to $21.07; October rose $10.40 to $1,506.90; and September palladium slipped 20 cents to $872.70 an ounce.