Gold Slides 2% to Two-Week Low; Palladium Hits Lowest Since June 2025

Gold fell to its lowest level in more than two weeks on Thursday, October 22, 2026, and other precious metals posted steeper percentage losses, as a rise in oil prices added to inflation concerns ahead of next week's Federal Reserve policy decision, Reuters reported via CNBC. Platinum and palladium touched multi-month lows, according to BullionVault.

Gold drops below $4,100

Spot gold slid 2.2% to $4,051.55 per ounce by 11:44 a.m. Eastern time, while U.S. gold futures for December delivery fell 2% to $4,066.20, Reuters reported. Earlier in the day, at 0800 GMT, gold had traded at $4,088.95, down 1.26%, Anadolu Agency reported.

Brent crude rose more than $2 a barrel after further Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia raised concerns about a wider conflict and supply disruption. Although gold is often treated as a hedge against inflation, higher interest rates raise the opportunity cost of holding an asset that pays no yield.

"Gold prices can fall further... because we are still seeing a lot of uncertainty around the energy market," Soni Kumari, an analyst at ANZ, told Reuters.

Gold has lost 4.62% over the past month, Anadolu reported. BullionVault said the metal has given up all of its rebound from August and is down 27.2% from the all-time high reached at the end of January. In Shanghai, the yuan-denominated gold auction price set at 2:15 p.m. local time fell below ¥880 for the first time since July 29, BullionVault said.

Silver, platinum and palladium

Silver fell $2.07, or 3.57%, to $55.89 an ounce at 0800 GMT, according to Anadolu, and has dropped 13.11% over the past month. BullionVault said silver's low for the day was 25 cents above last week's three-month low of $55.40 and that the metal is trading more than 50% below its all-time peak of $121, set in January. Silver's sharper fall lifted the gold-to-silver price ratio to about 72.9 from about 71.9 a day earlier, Capital Street FX said.

Platinum touched a three-month low of $1,577 per troy ounce, according to BullionVault. Palladium fell to its lowest spot price since June 2025, roughly half its three-year high reached in January, BullionVault said. Kitco data cited by Capital Street FX showed palladium down 3.36% at $1,037 and platinum down 2.65% early in the European session. BullionVault noted that both metals find their single largest use in autocatalysts, which reduce harmful emissions from fossil-fuel engines.

Rate expectations

U.S. consumer and producer inflation data released last week came in hotter than expected, largely because of rising energy costs, Reuters reported. Fed officials are expected to leave rates unchanged at their October 27-28 meeting, but traders are pricing in about an 80% chance of an increase in December, according to CME's FedWatch tool. Goldman Sachs expects one more 25-basis-point increase in December, which would lift the policy range to 4.00%-4.25%. The Fed raised rates to a range of 3.75%-4.00% in September, Capital Street FX noted.

Anadolu reported that remarks by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh last Friday did little to change expectations for a pause next week. The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are also expected to keep their rates unchanged at meetings next week.

Investors are also watching the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures price data, scheduled for release on October 29. "Given that the PCE data will show that prices rose at an uncomfortably high pace for the Fed, the FOMC communications may strike a hawkish tone and that could weigh on gold prices," said Hamad Hussain, climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, according to Reuters.

Bond yields and other markets

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell to a one-month low of 5.04%, while German Bund yields fell to a seven-week low below 3.35%, BullionVault reported. Borrowing costs for France, Italy and Greece rose, with the French 10-year yield climbing above 5.11%. Gold's decline came despite the drop in U.S. yields, which typically move in the opposite direction to the metal's price.