WASHINGTON: Gold extended a decline after the United States launched strikes against Iran in retaliation for the downing of a military helicopter, jeopardising efforts to end the war that’s roiled global markets and raised inflation risks.
Bullion fell as much as 2% to below US$4,175 an ounce yesterday, having slid 1.6% in the previous session.
American forces struck Iranian sites near the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump blamed Tehran for shooting down a US helicopter off the coast of Oman.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that several explosions were heard on Qeshm Island and along the country’s southern coast.
The latest clashes threaten a fragile ceasefire and risk extending the near-total closure of Hormuz, a vital transit point for energy shipments from the Middle East to global markets.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that the country “will leave no attack or threat unanswered” and the Islamic Republic later launched a drone strike on the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, state-run IRIB News reported.
Oil prices rebounded yesterday, further fuelling concerns about global inflation and in turn making central banks more likely to hold interest rates steady or raise them – a headwind for non-yielding precious metals.
The Brent crude benchmark rose as much as 2% to trade above US$93 a barrel before paring gains after the United States announced the end of its brief retaliatory campaign.
Gold is about a fifth below where it was trading before the Iran war broke out at the end of February.
The metal’s recent decline through its 200-day moving average – a widely watched measure of long-term momentum – has triggered additional selling as it’s seen as an important level watched by institutional investors.
“We expect price action to become more vulnerable in the near term” as the prospect of a rate hike increases, Suki Cooper, global head of commodities research at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a note.
More holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded products will be loss-making if bullion slumps further, which will “expose gold to further downside risk”, according to her.
The next technical support level for gold is around US$4,100 an ounce, Cooper noted.
“While markets such as India are soft, China remains a bright spot for demand, with the local premium steady at below US$10 an ounce,” she added.
Spot gold fell 2% to US$4,175.85 an ounce at 10.55am in Singapore.
Furthermore, silver slid 2.3% to $63.86 an ounce. Platinum and palladium also retreated.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency, was little changed. — Bloomberg
