Assets across the financial landscape surged on Thursday

Assets across the financial landscape surged on Thursday following Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s announcement of actions the central bank will take to boost the sluggish economy. The precious metals complex experienced significant gains with gold having spiked 2% and silver settling the day nearly 4.5% higher by the end of the trading session. Platinum and palladium experienced sharp gains as well but continue to be largely supported by the labor dispute that’s playing out in South Africa. At the conclusion of the two-day FOMC meeting the Fed announce the heavily anticipated third round of quantitative easing saying that, beginning today, the Fed will purchase $40 billion worth of Mortgage Backed Securities per month. The Fed also announced they will look to keep key interest rates near zero until at least 2015 while also continuing Operation Twist aimed at helping to lower mortgage rates to stimulate the housing market. While the long and short-term effects of the Fed’s decision will no doubt be debated between both sides of the isle, especially heading into the election, the only thing that seems to be suffering is the U.S. dollar. The euro is already up .91% on the day and is trading at $1.31. In South Africa, mine workers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine rejected the company’s wage offer and labled it an “insult”. Marikana is the site of last month’s deadly confrontation between police and protesters. AS tensions mount, Platinum has broken through the $1700 level having reached $1714.5 before falling to $1694…still up nearly 1% from yesterday’s close. The metals could see some profit taking heading into the weekend which is not totally unexpected given the recent sharp gains. On the domestic economic front we have August retail sales data, August inflation numbers, August industrial production and some consumer sentiment data on tap. Have a great day!