Gold Steadies After Two-Day Drop in Thin Lunar New Year Trading

Robin Paxton

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 9:53 AM GMT+9 2 min read

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Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – Gold was little changed after a two-day decline, with many Asian markets offline for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Bullion was near $4,880 an ounce in early trading, having lost more than 3% over the previous two sessions, when the US dollar strengthened. Trading has been unusually choppy since a historic rout at the turn of the month. A key gauge of the US currency rose as much as 0.4% on Tuesday before paring gains.

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A powerful rally carried gold to an all-time high above $5,595 an ounce in late January, but the market overheated and snapped back almost to $4,400 in just two sessions. The metal has regained some ground since, but has yet to find a clear support level.

Many banks, including BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., forecast that prices will resume their upward trend, with the factors that underpinned gold’s earlier, steady ascent still intact. These include heightened geopolitical tensions and a move away from sovereign bonds and currencies, as well as concerns over the Federal Reserve’s independence.

In the near term, investors will be looking to comments from Fed officials for clues on US monetary policy. An appetite for cutting interest rates would be a tailwind for non-yielding precious metals – gold rallied briefly on Friday when modest inflation data boosted the case to lower borrowing costs.

Fed Governor Michael Barr said on Tuesday rates should remain steady “for some time,” until officials see more evidence that inflation is heading toward the central bank’s 2% goal. Fed Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee, meanwhile, said there was potential for more cuts this year if inflation continued on its path toward that target.

Spot gold was little changed at $4,880.18 an ounce at 8:51 a.m. in Singapore. Silver edged down 1% to $72.83 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.9% and palladium was up 0.5%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was flat on Wednesday, and up 0.2% for the week.

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