Daily Data Flow: Ben Bernanke Clarifies Fed Policy; U.S. Stocks Rally on Fed Flexibility; Gold Falls as the Dollar Rises

Ben Bernanke Clarifies Fed Policy (Bloomberg)

In comments made today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke advised that the bank’s current quantitative easing (QE) policy was “by no means on a preset course.” He continued, saying that QE could be continually adjusted, based on factors such as inflation, unemployment or financial conditions.

U.S. Stocks Rally on Fed Flexibility (Bloomberg)

After slumping on Tuesday, U.S. stocks rose in reaction to Ben Bernanke’s Wednesday announcement that the Federal Reserve would take a flexible approach to quantitative easing. “The market is responding to the fact that the Fed is not going to create an arbitrary definition of when and how the QE program is going to end,” Stephen Wood, the New York-based chief market strategist at Russell Investments said. “They want to maintain flexibility in their policies.”

Gold Falls as the Dollar Rises (CNBC)

Gold fell over 1% and the dollar rose against other currencies on Wednesday, after Bernanke indicated a more flexible policy on Quantitative Easing. “One could argue that he lifted up the dovish expectations, because you are actually seeing the dollar reversing its earlier firmness,” VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.