Gold Price This Week: Friday Plunge Erases Gains, Silver Hit Harder

Gold ended the week at $3,875.53 an ounce, down 2.49%. Almost all of that came on Friday, when spot fell $143.82, or 3.58%, from Thursday's close of $4,019.35. Gold was actually ahead for the week going into Friday. One session erased that gain and pushed the metal lower.

The longer view is also weak. Gold is down 6.30% over the past month, 10.41% year to date and 2.03% from a year ago. The 52-week high is $5,405, which shows how far prices have come off the peak. SD Bullion reported that gold and silver are back at levels last seen last year after their record highs. VnExpress International said Friday's price was gold's lowest in months.

A packed calendar, a muted Fed

The U.S. calendar was full this week. Consumer confidence came out Tuesday, the Fed's rate decision and press conference were Wednesday, advance GDP and core PCE inflation landed Thursday, and the Employment Cost Index came out Friday. Our data includes forecasts for these releases but not the actual results, so we can't say which one surprised markets, if any did.

The Fed did not visibly change the picture. The effective fed funds rate was 3.88% a week ago and still 3.88% after Wednesday's meeting.

The usual suspects have alibis

When gold drops this hard, the first places to check are interest rates and the dollar. Neither moved much:

• The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.98%, up just 0.02 percentage point from a week earlier.
• The 10-year real yield (TIPS) slipped to 2.63% from 2.64%. That small decline would normally help gold, not hurt it.
• The broad trade-weighted dollar index eased to 121.32 from 121.40. That reading is dated October 23, so it doesn't capture Friday's move.
• The 10-year breakeven inflation rate was flat at 2.34%.

That backdrop was neutral to slightly favorable for gold. A real yield near 2.63% does make holding a non-yielding metal costly, but that pressure was already there and did not get worse this week. So the macro data doesn't explain a 3.58% one-day drop. The more likely cause is positioning and price momentum. That is an inference, not a certainty.

The positioning data supports the inference. As of Tuesday, October 27, CFTC figures showed managed-money funds net long 105,562 gold contracts, up 1,356 from the prior week, with 122,508 longs against just 16,946 shorts. Speculators were still adding bullish bets days before Friday's drop. When that many traders are on one side and the price breaks lower, exits can turn into a stampede. Next week's report will show how many of them left.

StoneX described the move as a technical breakdown that threatens a deeper selloff. Investment Week reported that investor fears wiped trillions of dollars from the tech-heavy Nasdaq in October. Sharp stock losses sometimes push investors to sell gold to raise cash, but our data can't confirm that happened here. For a broader view of these forces, see why gold is moving.

Silver took the bigger hit

Silver fell 6.1% on Friday to $49.12, nearly double gold's percentage loss. Over the past month silver is down 18.31%, compared with 6.30% for gold. HDFC Sky reported that silver hit a multi-month low this week. Silver's smaller market and heavy industrial demand make it more volatile than gold in both directions, and this week shows that clearly. Live quotes are on our silver price page.

The gold-silver ratio stands at 78.9, meaning one ounce of gold buys about 79 ounces of silver. Platinum showed $1,439 and palladium $1,001 with no recorded change in our feed. That may reflect a stale quote rather than a calm market, so treat it with caution.

What it means for you

Sellers: Scrap and jewelry offers are based on spot, so this week's drop lowers what your gold is worth. At current prices, 24K gold is worth $124.48 per gram in melt value, 18K is $93.45, 14K is $72.89 and 10K is $51.96. Dealers pay below melt value, so knowing these numbers helps you judge an offer. Weigh your pieces and run them through our gold calculator. Comparing offers from several buyers is likely to make a bigger difference than the timing of any single day.

Buyers: Lower spot prices reduce the cost of coins and bars, but dealer premiums often don't fall as quickly as spot. Compare the total price per ounce against spot, not just the sticker price. Volatility is clearly elevated, and the data doesn't tell us whether Friday's selling is finished.

Holders: The headlines are dramatic, but the one-year change is a loss of 2.03%. Year to date the picture is weaker, at a 10.41% decline, and prices are well below the $5,405 peak. Whether the drop matters to you depends mostly on when you bought, not on what happened Friday. Silver holders have had a much rougher month than gold holders.