International spot gold annual gains return to zero, future trends depend on the extent of damage to Iran's energy infrastructure

International spot gold continued last week's downward trend at the beginning of this week, with intraday declines exceeding 4%, and today's drop has completely wiped out the year-to-date gains. Precious metals analyst Bernard Dahdah believes that the current trend's core depends on the direction of Middle East conflicts and whether the Strait of Hormuz can be reopened. If Iran's energy facilities suffer further damage and conflicts become prolonged, due to the stickiness of energy prices, it could even force the Federal Reserve to shift towards rate hikes. Under this extreme scenario, gold prices could be dragged down to the $4,000 low.

In contrast to market pessimism, Saxo Bank analysts remain cautiously optimistic about gold's medium-term trends. The bank points out that this round of shocks displays obvious stagflation characteristics: high inflation coupled with weak economic growth, leaving global central banks in a dilemma. In such an environment, gold's core position as a hedge against "currency depreciation" and US dollar credit risks remains solid, and is supported by the long-term trend of "de-dollarization" and central bank reserve diversification.#Gate13周年全球庆典 #黄金创43年来最大单周跌幅 #特朗普向伊朗发出48小时最后通牒 #中东局势引发全球市场暴跌