Spot gold stayed firm in thin weekend trading at $4,829 per troy ounce, extending a run of four consecutive weekly gains. COMEX near-month futures finished Friday at $4,879, up 1.48% on the session. Dollar weakness and renewed uncertainty in the Middle East kept buyers active.
Weekend trade stayed pinned near the late-Friday move
USAGOLD logged spot gold at $4,829, a gain of $40 or about 0.84% from April 16. COMEX near-month futures rose $71 with volume of roughly 130,000 contracts, while the day’s range stretched from $4,785 to $4,917. By Sunday afternoon, Kitco showed bids and offers between $4,829 and $4,831. Goldprice.org tracked a 24-hour increase of $45.63, or about 0.95%.
As is common in over-the-counter spot trading on a weekend, price action was limited and mostly carried forward Friday’s levels. There was no formal COMEX settlement on Saturday. Gold held in a $4,790 to $4,831 band before edging a little higher into Sunday. From the April 16 close near $4,790 to Sunday’s level, the three-day gain came to about $41, or 0.85%, with most of the move built during Friday’s session.
Hormuz headlines and a softer dollar shaped the move
A key driver was Iran’s announcement that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open to commercial shipping during a 10-day truce period linked to progress in the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. That development pushed oil prices sharply lower at points during the week, by more than 10%, easing near-term inflation expectations and adding pressure on the U.S. dollar.
The situation then shifted again. Iran later said it had shut the strait once more, blaming a U.S. blockade. Trump posted a warning on Truth Social on Sunday and argued that Iran had not actually closed the waterway because the U.S. blockade had already done so. He wrote: “Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing.”
That unsettled debate over the shipping route, combined with a weaker dollar, made dollar-priced gold cheaper for buyers using other currencies. International demand responded on Friday, lifting both spot and futures prices.
Fed signals kept support under safe-haven buying
Federal Reserve rate-cut signals also fed the latest retreat in the dollar. Markets continued to price in easing expectations while watching upcoming U.S. data, including retail sales and purchasing managers index readings. Those macro cues helped keep gold close to record territory even as weekend trade turned quiet.
Traders did not treat the truce headlines as a reason to abandon defensive positioning. Gold extended gains through Friday instead of pulling back, showing that safe-haven demand remained intact while regional risks were still being reassessed. Peter Schiff wrote on X that “the best asset to buy is gold” in the current environment. Before Iran said it had closed the strait again, he also argued that even if peace talks failed and war resumed, gold would eventually stop falling during war escalations and rise regardless.
Gold now heads into the new week near peak levels, with weekend consolidation replacing the sharp move seen late last week. The market remains focused on the dollar, Fed expectations, and any new developments tied to the Strait of Hormuz.