Gold jumps on Fed news

Gold prices jumped on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday in response to Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting minutes release. The Fed strongly suggested it would need to act if the economic recovery failed to improve soon. That set up the expectation the dollar would lose strength, a direct result of a new round of quantitative easing, should that be the step the Fed takes. Gold prices surged, adding $31.60 Thursday to $1,672.10 per troy ounce. Silver added 91 cents to $30.56 an ounce. The euro rose to $1.2563 from Wednesday's $1.2529. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 78.48 yen from 78.59 yen.