Precious metals, cryptos surge after Fed rate hike

Gold’s price per ounce has once again crossed the $2k mark, presently trading at $2,057 per unit, reflecting a 1.18 per cent rise during the last 24 hours

Following a quarter-point hike in the federal funds rate by the U.S. Fed on Wednesday, precious metals like silver and gold saw a jump in value compared to the U.S. dollar, with gains ranging from 0.87 per cent to 1.18 per cent. Gold, specifically, has been on an upward trajectory, having increased by 3.4 per cent during the last month and more than 25 per cent during the past six months.

As of May 3, 2023, gold’s price per ounce has once again crossed the $2k mark, presently trading at $2,057 per unit, reflecting a 1.18 per cent rise during the last 24 hours. The Fed’s rate raise has triggered a rush of activity on Twitter, with precious metals trending and resulting in several discussions and tweets. In the meantime, global data from Google Trends suggests that the search term “how to buy gold” hit a perfect score of 100 on Wednesday afternoon, as per 24-hour statistics.

Silver has also been on the up, with the value of an ounce rising by 0.87 per cent compared to the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. Over the last 30 days, silver has seen a 6 per cent rise, while six-month statistics disclose a 31.5 per cent increase compared to the dollar. After the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) decision to increase the benchmark bank rate on Wednesday, chair Jerome Powell stressed the central bank’s firm commitment to lowering inflation.

The assessment of the degree to which further policy firming may be appropriate is going to be an ongoing one, meeting by meeting, the Fed chair said. We have to balance the risk of not doing adequate and not getting inflation under control against the risk of decreasing economic activity too much. And we thought that this rate raise, together with the relevant change in our policy statement, was the correct method to balance that.