Gold’s New Year Reset: Record Highs, A Year-End Flush, And A Fresh Bid
Key Points
- Gold is trading around $4,375–$4,379/oz this morning after retreating from record territory near $4,550.
- The pullback was dominated by year-end positioning, thin holiday liquidity, and higher futures margins.
- ETF flows softened into Dec. 31, but the broader inflow trend stayed strong, keeping gold volatile, not broken.
Gold opened the first full trading morning of 2026 on steadier footing after a sharp year-end shakeout. Spot was in the mid-$4,370s early Friday; Reuters cited about $4,378.75 around 05:53 GMT, close to levels on screens near 07:44 UTC.
The last seven days traced a fast boom-and-reset. Prices ran into a record zone near $4,550 on Dec. 26, with a close around $4,531.75, then reversed into Dec. 29, when gold settled near $4,325.10—about a 4.5% down day—before stabilizing into the holiday close.
Mechanics drove the move. The Financial Times pointed to higher futures margin requirements, which raise the cost of leveraged longs and can accelerate forced selling.
Tim Waterer of KCM Trade said gold was “making amends” as “position-squaring pressures have eased” and “fundamentals are again in focus.”
Gold steadies after holidays
Asia helped re-start price discovery after Jan. 1 closures. Bloomberg noted gold up about 1% in Singapore trade, while India’s MCX February contract was quoted near ₹136,800 per 10 grams.
CME screens showed overnight futures turnover in the tens of thousands of contracts. Flows were mixed. Investors still favored policy credibility and tight fiscal arithmetic over spend-first promises. Data tracked by etf.com showed GLD among the largest Dec.
31 redemptions (about $200.8 million). Yet the World Gold Council reported roughly $5.2 billion of ETF inflows in November and record holdings near 3,932 tonnes, suggesting the late-December drop was a clean-out rather than a definitive top.
Technically, gold is stabilizing but not fully re-accelerating. The 4-hour view shows RSI near 49 with MACD improving; the daily chart printed a rebound candle (roughly $4,325–$4,382 range) with RSI near 58; the weekly candle remained down about 3.5% with RSI still elevated near 70.
Traders are watching resistance at $4,412–$4,444, then $4,550, against support at $4,320–$4,300, then around $4,218 and $4,181, with a deeper long-term reference near $3,626.
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