FOMC Releases Minutes, QE3 Discussed

The FOMC released its minutes from its June 22 meeting, and the Fed talked about a third round of quantitative easing. The Fed openly discussed the potential for a third round of quantitative easing, and all agreed on the need to keep interest rates low. The Fed talked about exit strategies, and also discussed more easing, so there is no consensus view on what the Fed is going to do next. From the minutes: "The Committee discussed strategies for normalizing the stance and conduct of monetary policy, following up on its discussion of this topic at the April meeting. Participants stressed that the Committee's discussions of this topic were undertaken as part of prudent planning and did not imply that a move toward such normalization would necessarily begin sometime soon. For concreteness, the Committee considered a set of specific principles that would guide its strategy of normalizing the stance and conduct of monetary policy. Participants discussed several specific elements of the principles, including how they should characterize the monetary policy framework that the Committee would adopt after the conduct of policy returned to normal and whether the principles should encompass the possible timing between the normalization steps. At the conclusion of the discussion, all but one of the participants agreed on the following key elements of the strategy that they expect to follow when it becomes appropriate to begin normalizing the stance and conduct of monetary policy:" To read the entire minutes from the FOMC, please click

This section of the minutes showed that QE3 was discussed: "Some participants noted that if economic growth remained too slow to make satisfactory progress toward reducing the unemployment rate and if inflation returned to relatively low levels after the effects of recent transitory shocks dissipated, it would be appropriate to provide additional monetary policy accommodation....A few members noted that, depending on how economic conditions evolve, the Committee might have to consider providing additional monetary policy stimulus, especially if economic growth remained too slow to meaningfully reduce the unemployment rate in the medium run." Gold is moving higher on the back of the release that QE3 was discussed. One related ETF is the SPDR Gold ETF

.