Gold falls to one-year low, tech selloff and rate-hike fears hit precious metals
Gold, long seen as the place to hide when markets turn rough, fell to its lowest price in a year on Friday, and silver, platinum and palladium sank even further. The drop came on a day when technology shares tumbled, which is the opposite of what many investors expect from gold. For readers in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere who buy gold as jewellery, savings or insurance, the move is a reminder that the metal does not always protect against stock-market falls, and that interest rates in the US can matter as much as fear.
According to Reuters, spot gold fell 3.5% to $3,880.97 an ounce, its lowest level since October 2025, and slipped below the $4,000 level that many traders had treated as a floor. Silver dropped 6.5% to about $49, below $50 for the first time in 11 months. Platinum fell 4.2% to $1,425.02, and palladium lost 3% to $976.08, going below $1,000. Other data matches: a separate market table put gold down 3.63% at $3,884.90 on Friday. US gold futures for December delivery settled 3.3% lower at $3,898.90.
For gold, this is a long slide. Reuters says the metal is down about 30% from its record high of $5,595 in January. Silver has fallen even more, from a record near $122 that same month. The record figures vary slightly by data provider, with another source putting gold’s peak at $5,589, so treat them as approximate.
Reuters’s headline blames the tech rout. Stocks fell sharply on worries that heavy spending on artificial intelligence may not bring enough profit, and analysts at Commerzbank said forced selling and margin calls may have pushed investors to sell safe-haven assets like gold to raise cash. A margin call is when a lender demands more money from an investor whose losses have grown, which can force them to sell whatever they can, including things that are not falling. Saxo Bank also pointed to investors closing out positions and momentum selling.
Other outlets stress a different driver: interest rates. Higher oil prices are feeding inflation concerns, and traders expect the US Federal Reserve may raise rates again in December, according to investingLive. Gold pays no interest, so when rates and bond yields rise, it becomes less attractive compared with holding cash or bonds. A stronger dollar also makes gold more expensive for buyers using other currencies. The picture is more complicated than either story, because US Treasury yields actually fell on Friday as investors bought government bonds during the selloff, yet gold dropped anyway. That points to forced selling as the main force on the day, with rate worries as the background.
Silver, platinum and palladium lost 7% to 9% this week, compared with a 2.9% fall for gold. Reuters says those metals lack the support gold has had from central-bank buying and safe-haven demand. Silver is increasingly treated as an industrial metal, and HSBC says industrial and jewellery demand for it is falling, forecasting an average price of $64 an ounce in 2027, down from its forecast of $71 this year. Palladium is hurt by worries about car demand. The “relative strength index,” a technical gauge of how fast a price has moved, has fallen deep into “oversold” territory for silver, platinum and palladium for the first time in three years. Oversold means prices have dropped quickly and may bounce, but it does not guarantee they will.
It now takes 79 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold, the most in 11 months, compared with 46 in January. Metals Focus says the average from 2020 to 2025 was 82, which suggests silver could fall further against gold.
Views differ. Commerzbank expects a recovery. Reuters notes that central-bank demand has tended to strengthen when gold falls below $4,000. Morgan Stanley had called $4,000 a floor weeks earlier, and Bank of America had flagged a possible low of $3,750, so a further drop is not ruled out. The Asian market is weak, with muted demand from buyers there.
Prices, the one-year low and the size of the falls are reported by several outlets. Whether the selloff was mainly forced selling or interest-rate fear, and whether prices recover next week, are not known. This is a news summary, not investment advice.
Sources: Reuters, The Standard (Reuters), Seeking Alpha, investingLive, investingLive (Saxo Bank), Kitco, Mining.com, Khaleej Times, 247 Wall St, NewsBytes and BeInCrypto.
