The metals are trading in the red zone this morning.

The metals are trading in the red zone this morning. Gold fails to trade in the positive territory despite Bernanke’s dovish comments last night at the National Economics Club Annual Dinner. Although the economy has improved since the recession, Bernanke mentioned it is far from where officials want it to be and thus, it will take time for monetary policy to return to normal settings. Since the announcement of the asset purchase program, unemployment has fallen .8 percentage point and roughly 2.6 million payroll jobs have been added. The FOMC expects labor conditions to further improve and for inflation to move towards the 2% objective over the medium term. If data supports the FOMC views, tapering shall begin. Until then, the FOMC will keep its policies for as long as needed. Overall, there is currently minimal support for gold due to weak physical demand and a lack of major economic data. Investors will pay close to attention for “surprises”  in the Fed minutes, which will be released at 2:00 this afternoon. CPI (MoM) is down .1% for October and Retail Sales (MoM) are up .4% for October. Silver, Platinum, and Palladium are following Gold’s downtrend trading at negative levels of .24%, 1.11%, .68% respectively. Existing Home Sales figures will be released at 10:00 a.m. Have a great day!