Gold Breaches $1,300 on Iraq Tension, Fed Comments

A week and a half ago, gold reached a two-week high as conflict raged in Iraq. Though investors were pleased with the jump, some were skeptical about whether the metal’s good fortune would continue.

However, the metal’s safe-haven appeal intensified Thursday when US President Barack Obama announced plans to deploy up to 300 military advisers over to Iraq. Also pushing gold up, according to Money Morning, was the dollar’s fall to its lowest level in almost four weeks. That happened on the back of news out of the FOMC meeting, at which the Fed “suggested a more aggressive pace of interest rate increases starting next year,” but “lowered projections for the long-run target interest rate.” That means interest rates won’t rise in the near future, and, when they do, “will still sit at low levels.”