【Wealth Weekly】Federal Reserve Maintains Interest Rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, Gold and Silver Experience Sharp Decline

Jiemian News Reporter | Jiang Yiman

Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rate Target at 3.5% to 3.75%

In the early morning of March 19 Beijing time, the U.S. Federal Reserve concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting and announced that the federal funds rate target range would remain unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, in line with market expectations. This is the second consecutive time the Fed has kept interest rates steady since January this year.

Yang Delong, Chief Economist at Qianhai Open Source Fund, told Jiemian News that the Fed has cut interest rates multiple times. This year, rate cuts may be delayed, with no change expected in March, but there could be opportunities to cut rates in the second half of the year.

Gold and Silver Prices Drop Significantly This Week

Due to a stronger dollar, delayed rate cut expectations, and changing market risk appetite, safe-haven assets faced selling pressure.

Regarding gold, as of March 20, spot gold was priced at $4,498.31 per ounce, down 10.37% for the week.

Silver performed even worse, with spot silver trading at $67.801 per ounce, a weekly decline of 15.85%. Since the high of $121.647 per ounce in January, it has fallen more than 46%, showing increased volatility and profit-taking pressure.

Shanghai Composite Hits New Low for the Year

On March 20, 2026, the Shanghai Composite Index fell below the 4,000-point mark and hit a new low for the year, mainly due to multiple factors including external geopolitical conflicts pushing up oil prices and inflation, uncertainty in Fed monetary policy, internal technical adjustments, and profit exhaustion from previous gains.

Gold Jewelry Prices Plummet Over 100 Yuan

As international gold prices decline, gold jewelry prices have also fallen sharply.

Data from Dewu App shows that as of March 19, the prices of gold jewelry and gold bars have decreased by nearly 10% compared to one month ago. The 0.7g Jin Fengxiang solid gold碎碎冰 ring dropped from 1,037 yuan to 1,008 yuan, a 3% (29 yuan) decrease, and 7% (72 yuan) below the recent peak of 1,080 yuan. The 0.6g Chinese Gold butterfly pendant fell from 1,032 yuan to 1,022 yuan, a 1% (10 yuan) decrease.

Gold bar prices are down 2% from one month ago. The 1g Chinese Jewelry gold bar dropped from 1,339 yuan to 1,319 yuan, an 8% (120 yuan) decline from the peak of 1,439 yuan this month. The 5g Lao Feng Xiang gold bar, which peaked at 7,000 yuan this month, fell to 6,675 yuan, a 5% (325 yuan) decrease.

Multiple Wealth Management Firms Lower Product Performance Benchmarks

Recently, leading institutions such as China Merchants Bank Wealth Management, Ping An Wealth Management, and China Post Wealth Management have gradually adjusted the performance benchmarks of some products, generally showing a trend of “narrowing ranges and lowering values.”

Mixed Asset Wealth Management Products See Increased Issuance and Diversified Asset Allocation

Since 2026, the issuance of mixed asset wealth management products has reached 118, a year-on-year increase of 71%. Many institutions are deploying multi-strategy portfolios combining “fixed income + equities + alternative assets.”