Gold fell to a three-month low on Friday and was headed for its steepest weekly decline in over four months as higher energy prices fuelled inflation concerns and reinforced US rate hike expectations ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026, via Kitco News
Spot gold fell 0.6% to $3,998.35 an ounce by 11:20 a.m. EDT (1520 GMT), slipping below the $4,000 mark for the first time since mid-July and touching a session low of $3,975.23, Reuters reported. Bullion has fallen 4% this week, putting it on track for its worst week since June, and US gold futures for December delivery settled 1.3% lower at $4,007.90 an ounce.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026, via Kitco News
Brent crude touched a more than five-month high on Friday, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concern over further disruption to energy supplies, Reuters reported. Rising oil prices can stoke inflation, prompting investors to scale back expectations of easier monetary policy — and gold, which pays no interest, loses appeal when rates stay higher for longer.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026, via Kitco News
"Heightened inflation concerns suggest that major central banks of the world won't be able to ease monetary policies as quickly as they want to. All that's working against the gold and silver market bulls at present," Jim Wyckoff, a market analyst at American Gold Exchange, told Reuters. The selloff in technology stocks has also led to margin calls for equity traders, prompting them to sell gold and silver assets, he said.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026, via Kitco News
Al Jazeera, reporting the same slide, said gold fell amid rising oil prices and a higher US dollar, hitting a seven-week low earlier in the day, with silver following suit and recording a loss of nearly 5%. In Reuters' earlier Friday report, spot silver had slid 1.2% to $53.8882 per ounce and platinum fell 0.8% to $1,557.03, its lowest since July, with all three metals headed for weekly declines.
Source: Al Jazeera financial markets coverage, Oct 23, 2026; Reuters via Kitco, Oct 23, 2026
Traders largely expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged at its October 27-28 meeting, while seeing a 78% probability of a December hike, according to CME's FedWatch Tool cited by Reuters. Investors are also awaiting the US Personal Consumption Expenditures report — the Fed's preferred inflation gauge — on October 29.