Gold falls, oil rallies after Fed decision

San Francisco (Sept 17)  Gold prices fell today after the Federal Reserve reduced its stimulus efforts and signaled it expects to raise interest rates sometime in 2015.

Gold for December delivery, the most active contract, was recently down 0.4 percent at $1,231.90 a troy ounce in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The December contract had settled at $1,235.90 an ounce when gold trading on the Comex floor ended at 1:30 p.m. EDT, roughly half an hour before the Fed's policy statement was released.

In energy markets, U.S. crude oil rose late in the session but still ended lower today, after a weekly official oil report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed crude stockpiles in the U.S. to have increased much more than expected.

Light Sweet Crude Oil futures for October delivery, the most actively traded contract, shed $0.46 or 0.5 percent to close at $94.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

However, crude oil prices fell sharply after the Federal Reserve policy decision was announced, even as the dollar trended higher.

Earlier today, a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude oil inventories to have risen 3.7 million barrels in the week ended September 12, while analysts anticipated a decline of 0.4 million barrels. The EIA report showed U.S. crude oil inventories at 362.3 million barrels, end last week.

Late last night, data released by the American Petroleum Institute showed crude inventories were up by a larger than expected 3.3 million barrels in the week ended September 12.

The Federal Reserve today maintained its pledge to keep near-zero rates in place for a "considerable time" after its bond-buying stimulus program ends.

The central bank reduced its monthly asset purchases to $15 billion, while indicating the program will likely end in October.

But policy makers refrained from offering a more specific time-line for raising interest rates.

The Fed struck a cautious tone in its current assessment of the jobs situation, noting there remains significant slack in the labor market. Job growth slowed last month even as unemployment rate dipped back down to 6.1 percent.

Source: ProactiveInvestrors