Gold prices are down sharply in trading today as investors have been disappointed by the Federal Reserve’s lack of action. Meanwhile, silver prices are also down sharply in trading today. The Fed on Wednesday concluded its two-day FOMC meeting. At the end of the meeting, the Fed announced that it is expanding its Operation Twist program through 2012. However, the central bank did not hint at more aggressive monetary easing even as it lowered growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013. Speaking to Reuters, Credit Suisse analyst Tom Kendall said that people’s estimation of probability of QE III was pretty low, but now we are seeing a bit of an unwind in gold. Kendall said that he is looking forward now to see what happens with U.S. data, the jobs data in particular. He said that the market will also be intensely focused on the next FOMC in August. Meanwhile, investment bank Fairfax said in a research note that it is worried over the potential impact of the looming fiscal cliff in December, when the Bush-era tax credits are due to end. Fairfax expects the Fed to take further action before this event to avoid yet another potential crisis. It said in the note that gold is attractively priced at current levels and the potential for further QE in the U.S., China and Europe is likely to lead gold higher this year. Silver prices are sharply lower in trading currently. At last check, spot silver was trading 1.71% lower at $27.62 an ounce.

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