Gold steadied on Monday after its biggest weekly drop since June. Bullion traded on either side of 4,000 dollars an ounce after falling more than 4 percent last week to its lowest since July, Bloomberg reported, with spot gold slipping 0.1 percent to 3,993.20 dollars in early Singapore trading. The site market tables, updated October 26 at 06:00 ET, put gold at 4,031.70 dollars an ounce, up 0.59 percent on the day and down 3.09 percent on the week, a later snapshot of the same range bound session rather than a different market.
Silver moved with it. Spot silver climbed 0.5 percent to 54.12 dollars an ounce, Bloomberg reported, after giving up 5.4 percent last week, and the site tables put silver at 54.13 dollars, up 0.78 percent. Platinum and palladium edged higher in the Bloomberg reporting, and Qatar News Agency market reporting put platinum at 1,549.42 dollars and palladium at 1,047.90 dollars in the same session.
The week’s question is the Federal Reserve. Traders are weighing stubbornly high energy prices ahead of the October 27 to 28 policy meeting, and expectations for the rate path have shifted repeatedly over the past month, from raised bets on an October hike after hot inflation prints to a market price of roughly a 10 percent chance of a hike this week, with stronger bets on a move before year end. Higher borrowing costs are a direct headwind for gold, which pays no interest.
Bloomberg put the longer move in context: gold has fallen by about a quarter since the war with Iran began in late February, driven by tighter monetary policy as economies try to rein in energy led inflation, and last week’s dip below 4,000 dollars was spurred in part by a rotation out of artificial intelligence stocks into bonds, with gold sold to cover equity losses. That makes this week’s meeting a test of whether the sell off was a rates repricing or a liquidity event, and the two have different floors.