Gold futures are weighing and responding in earnest to the Ben Bernanke Congressional testimony of the last week. While the futures look comfortable in dealing with the anticipation that the Fed would not taper as soon as the markets had thought, lending it some buying appetite, the prospect of a tapering lingers with an uneasy calm.

?There?s still a bit of a thirst for the metal,? Jonathan Barratt, chief executive officer of Barratt?s Bulletin said to Bloomberg.

?Given that Bernanke has already suggested that tapering will only occur when they?re very comfortable with the economic outlook, we?re going to see tapering on the agenda but it?s going to be some time before it actually starts,? he added.

Gold on the Comex for delivery on August 13 was seen trading at $1,338.85/oz, a gain of $4.15 or 0.31% as of 10.05 AM IST.

The multi-billion Dollar question used to be this: When will the US Federal Reserve start to taper? After a series of testimonies this year, the answer looks very much elusive. The Fed could not be blamed on this, because they are doing what that is mandated out of them.

The Fed do own the trigger of shooting the Quantitative Easing measures point-blank. Only thing is that they cannot pull it at their will. In fact, having started this whirlpool of money printing, a genie is out, which is refusing to go into the bottle.

The markets have in effect become QE fetish to such an extent that it would be difficult to pull the trigger on QE execution. Playing to the gallery is imperative in a politicized economy.

Read more: tradingtipsexpert