Gold Rises Slightly As Traders Await Round 2 Of Bernanke

 NEW YORK (July 18) Gold is modestly higher in early U.S. trading Thursday. Price action sees technical chart consolidation and a corrective bounce following Wednesday’s selling pressure. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak before the U.S. Senate later in the morning. August gold was last up $2.50 at $1,280.00 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $6.50 at $1,281.50. September Comex silver last traded down $0.01 at $19.41 an ounce.

The market place awaits round two of Bernanke’s testimony to the U.S. Congress Thursday morning, this time in front of a Senate panel. The Fed chief told a House committee Wednesday the U.S. central bank’s bond-buying program is “by no means on a preset course.” Bernanke reiterated the Fed remains flexible in its monetary policy. He also said if economic conditions deteriorate again the central bank could ramp up its monthly bond-buying program, also called quantitative easing. There was no clear-cut consensus in the market place on whether Bernanke’s comments were more dovish or more hawkish than his remarks of the past few weeks. Still, the majority of traders and investors view Bernanke as wanting to wind down QE later rather than sooner.