Stocks are slumping, the Canadian dollar is down sharply, and gold is suffering from a “killer blow” as the market rout sparked by Ben Bernanke continues today.

Also troubling investors is a fresh reading on manufacturing in China.

As The Globe and Mail’s Kevin Carmichael and Brian Milner report, this all began yesterday afternoon after the chairman of the Federal Reserve laid out a timeline for when it could begin to pull back from its extraordinary stimulus program known as quantitative easing, or QE.

That’s a bond-buying scheme, aimed at driving down interest rates and worth some $85-billion (U.S.) a month.

Investors want to be sure that the economy and the markets can withstand a pullback before the U.S. central bank eases up.

Thus, Mr. Bernanke’s suggestion that the Fed could begin to withdraw, likely this fall, and end the program completely next year is playing with the nerves of investors.

“Ben Bernanke has put the cat well and truly among the pigeons with his statement that asset purchases would begin slowing by the end of this year,” said sales trader Yusuf Heusen of IG in London.

“It does feel as if the Fed chairman has pulled the rug from underneath the stock market rally, and he certainly seems to have dealt a killer blow to gold,” he added in a research note.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/fed-fallout-gold-dealt-killer-blow-canadian-dollar-tumbles/article12700684/