After remaining calm for most of the summer, precious metals have been on the aggressive trend. The previous month witnessed the upward move and accelerated with the Federal Reserve’s latest quantitative easing program, known as QE3. The Fed’s move to foster economic growth has spurred a new round of balance sheet analysis and gold price targets.

Since the beginning of August, the price of gold has jumped 10 percent, while silver has plunged by 18 percent. The Fed’s commitment of expanding its long-term assets holdings surged the prices of the metals to a six-months high. This move will increase the central bank’s balance sheet far beyond its current $2.8 trillion.

Bank of America expects the Federal Reserve to take additional monetary action until the end of 2014, due to the weakening labor market. The bank estimates that the Fed will end up owning more than a third of the total outstanding mortgage market by the end of 2014, and roughly half of the long end U.S. Treasury market in a year. This is seen as a huge positive catalyst for gold prices.

Francisco Blanch, a global investment strategist with Bank of America, recently placed a price target of $2,400 an ounce on gold by the end of 2014.  He suggested the new target reflects the view that the Fed will maintain mortgage purchases until the end of 2014, and will move to buy Treasuries.