Many banks expect gold to resume its upward trend.
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Gold dipped below $5,000 an ounce, as traders booked profits after a gain in the previous session spurred by mild US inflation data.
Bullion fell as much as 1.5 per cent, having climbed 2.4 per cent on Friday, when a modest rise in the US consumer price index for January allayed concerns about a bigger jump. This boosted the case for the Federal Reserve to trim interest rates — a tailwind for precious metals, which don’t pay interest.
“The market remains in a phase of rebalancing between bulls and bears, lacking clear catalysts to break the range,” Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone Group Ltd, said in a note. “At $5,100, multiple attempts to push higher failed, as profit-taking at the top generated selling pressure,” she said.
With markets in China closed this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, liquidity is thinner than usual during Asian trading hours. Demand for precious metals in the country has been frenetic in recent months, prompting authorities in the retail hub of Shenzhen to issue a stark warning against “illegal gold-trading activities,” ranging from apps offering leverage to retail investors to online live streams promoting bullion sales.
Gold surged to a record above $5,595 an ounce in late January as a wave of speculative buying drove a multiyear rally to breaking point. An abrupt, two-day rout at the turn of the month dragged it back almost to $4,400, but bullion has since regained roughly half of its losses in choppy trading.
Recent price moves reflect “orderly consolidation and light profit-taking” after the push above $5,000 that followed Friday’s US inflation numbers, said Hebe Chen, an analyst at Vantage Markets in Melbourne. US markets will also be closed Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.
Many banks expect gold to resume its upward trend, arguing that the drivers behind a multiyear rally remain in place — including geopolitical tensions, questions over the Fed’s independence, and a broader shift away from traditional assets such as currencies and sovereign bonds. ANZ Group Holdings Ltd said it expects bullion to hit $5,800 an ounce in the second quarter, joining a chorus of financial institutions that have forecast higher prices.
“Structurally, the metal continues to demonstrate resilience — the macro backdrop has been firm but not disruptive, and technical support remains intact,” Chen said.
Spot gold fell 1 per cent to $4,989.64 an ounce as of 2:10 p.m. in Singapore. Silver dropped 1.8 per cent to $76.03 an ounce. Platinum and palladium also traded slightly lower. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency, edged up 0.1 per cent.
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Published on February 16, 2026
