CAPITAL MARKETS

Gold, equities gain

The gold price is higher after the US Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates unchanged and chairman Jerome Powell said it would “take a while” to get back to the levels of economic activity and employment seen at the start of 2020.

Staff reporter
 US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell

"With regard to interest rates, we continue to expect it will be appropriate to maintain the current 0-0.25% target range for the federal funds rate until labour market conditions have reached levels consistent with the committee's assessments of maximum employment and inflation has risen to 2% and is on track to moderately exceed 2% percent for some time," he said.

Gold rose to US$1,865 an ounce on the spot market.

Silver was back over $25/oz to $25.31 on the spot market and is up more than $8 or 48% for the past year.

Among precious metals equities, Premier Gold Mines (TSX: PG) gained 19% on news of a friendly acquisition by Equinox Gold.

For its part, Equinox (TSX: EQX) closed down 1.8%.

Aftermath Silver (TSXV: AAG), which this week unveiled a resource for its Challacollo silver project in Chile, rose 12.2%.

Meanwhile, First Cobalt (TSX: FCC) shot up 53.6% on news of a C$10 million investment by Canada's federal and provincial governments, enabling it to commission and expand its cobalt refinery north of Toronto.

Finally, South Africa had a public holiday yesterday for the day of reconciliation.

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