Gold Trades Near $4,000 an Ounce After Doubling Since Early 2024 and Then Dropping 30 Percent From Record

Gold prices have fallen to around $4,025 a troy ounce early Friday, down roughly 30 percent from an intraday record near $5,600 reached in late January, Insider reported. The metal more than doubled from about $2,000 an ounce at the start of 2024 before the reversal began. It is also lower for the year to date.

Higher interest rates and a stronger dollar have reduced the appeal of non-yielding assets, according to the report. Expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep rates higher for longer or raise them have added pressure. Weaker demand from exchange-traded funds and softer buying from China and India have removed earlier sources of support.

ING lowered its average price forecast to $4,300 an ounce for the third quarter of 2026 and $4,600 for the fourth quarter. The bank had previously projected $4,850 and $5,000 for those periods. Commodity strategist Ewa Manthey wrote that markets have shifted focus from safe-haven demand toward the effects of tighter financial conditions.

Deutsche Bank cut its third-quarter 2026 forecast by more than 20 percent to $4,300 an ounce and its fourth-quarter projection by 17 percent to $4,800, analyst Michael Hsueh said. Goldman Sachs reduced its year-end 2026 target by $500 to $4,900 an ounce. Bank of America kept its 12-month target of $6,000 an ounce but stated that reaching that level now looks unlikely for now.

The string of revisions follows months in which some forecasts had pointed to fresh record highs driven by central-bank buying and geopolitical factors.