Gold prices tumbled to their lowest in more than 2-1/2 years on Thursday, June 20 and silver fell more than 6 percent after the U.S. Federal Reserve gave its most explicit signal yet that it plans to bring the era of easy money to an end.Gold plunged after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. economy was expanding strongly enough for the central bank to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.Its fall picked up momentum after it broke through its April low at $1,321 an ounce, a key support level, knocking it to a low of $1,285.90, down 4.5 percent and its weakest since September 2010. 

 

Bonds, shares and commodities fell sharply around the world on Thursday and the dollar rose after Bernanke's comments.The ultra-loose monetary policy brought in by the Fed to boost U.S. growth, which kept interest rates at rock bottom levels while stoking concerns about inflation, was a major factor fuelling a more than decade-long bull run in gold that took prices to record highs in September 2011.Indications that the policy was nearing an end have helped push prices down more than 20 percent this year after 12 straight years of gains. (Agency)