Dollar slips (and PMs rally) as Bernanke prompts market to reassess Fed plans to scale back QE

``Bernanke said the Fed would continue to pursue an accommodative monetary policy as inflation remained low and the unemployment rate might be understating the weakness of the labor market. Fed minutes, however, showed that half of the bank's policymakers think the stimulus program should stop by the end of this year.''

Totally expected around these parts.

See also James Turk's reaction:

[Bernanke] definitely signaled that QE will not end any time soon, but the other thing that was very interesting is he said the unemployment number is probably much worse than what the official number suggests. This was an incredible statement to come out of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. This just proves that the economic activity in the United States is incredibly fragile, and this is especially troubling given the extraordinary amount of money that has already been printed.