Gold prices fell sharply during trading on Tuesday, with contracts for the yellow metal suffering their largest daily losses since December 18; the first such decline in over nine weeks. This caused bullion prices to trade at their lowest levels in a week, despite the losses seen in both the dollar and U.S. Treasury bonds.
Gold Now In terms of trading, spot gold prices dropped by approximately 1.98% or nearly $60 per ounce, registering at $2,888.4 per ounce, while April delivery gold futures fell by 2.04% or $60.10 per ounce, with the price of the ounce trading at $2,903.00.
What Caused These Major Losses for Gold Today? Gold prices faced strong downward pressure today due to widespread selling primarily driven by profit-taking from high positions, after the yellow metal reached its all-time high yesterday at $2,956.15 per ounce, maintaining trading close to the $2,950 level for four consecutive sessions. This led investors to lock in profits from the historical eleventh peak that gold has recorded since the beginning of the year.
Profit-taking came at a time of investor fears of an impending decline in global gold prices if an agreement is reached to end the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, which has now lasted for three years, amid anticipation of the results of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine with U.S. administration intervention.
On another note, U.S. President Donald Trump announced yesterday the readiness for the tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico to take effect on March 4, which heightened concerns about increasing upward inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy, and increased speculation that the Federal Reserve might keep interest rates unchanged at its March meeting to control potential inflationary pressures.
The latest weekly data showed that speculators in the futures market reduced their net long positions in gold by 13,605 contracts during the week ending February 18 to 201,962, while holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust – the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund – increased to 904.38 metric tons on Friday, the highest level since August 2023.
