Rarely could two words – or the failure to mention them – have had such an impact.
For gold investors, who had set their hearts on a fresh bout of “quantitative easing”, Ben Bernanke’s studied avoidance of the subject last week came as a considerable disappointment. In the hours after the chairman of the Federal Reserve spoke, bullion prices tumbled almost $100 an ounce.
The 5 per cent fall, gold’s largest daily drop in more than three years, has triggered a nervous reappraisal of the precious metal among some investors: how strong can the fundamentals of the market be, they ask, if a non-denial from the Federal Reserve chief can have such a marked impact?