Gold tumbled on Wednesday, as minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting hinted that an unwinding of its bond-buying program could come "within the coming months."
Federal Reserve officials moved no closer to unwinding their monthly asset purchasing program at the October meeting, yet pointed to "coming months" when a tapering could occur.
According to minutes from the meeting, Open Markets Committee members looked to economic improvement that "would prove consistent with the Committee's outlook for ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months."
The release dovetailed with St. Louis Fed President James Bullard's comments about possible December tapering, and a Bloomberg report that the European Central Bank is considering negative deposit rates.