Spot gold held its ground Thursday while Wall Street suffered one of its ugliest sessions in years — and the two moves are more connected than they look.
At the latest verified afternoon quotation, spot gold traded near $4,087.26 an ounce, up $25.93, or 0.64%, according to Kitco. Spot silver went the other way, trading near $51.778, down $0.407, or 0.78%. Gold had earlier touched $4,148.00, its highest intraday level since Oct. 20, before fading as the equity selloff deepened.
【A 1,833-Point Drop Sends Investors Hunting for Cover】
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, to close at 51,523.06. The S&P 500 dropped 4.36% to 7,353.73 — its steepest daily decline since April 2025 — while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled roughly 5.52% to near 24,315, sliding into correction territory after falling nearly 12% from its October peak. The Russell 2000 lost about 4.4% to 2,729.89.
The damage was concentrated in semiconductors and artificial intelligence names. Nvidia fell about 9.3%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 17.3%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped roughly 12%. Canada's S&P/TSX Composite fell about 1.53% to near 35,785, with technology shares leading the decline. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 slipped about 0.6% to the 653-point area, Germany's DAX lost about 0.4% to near 26,330, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed roughly 0.5% to around 10,771.
The trigger: Democratic victories in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections put both chambers of Congress under Democratic control, raising expectations for tighter oversight of AI investment, data-center development and related energy infrastructure. Worries that regulation or construction delays could dent demand for chips and cloud capacity fed the tech rout.
【Why Gold Caught a Bid While Silver Did Not】
As equities fell, money moved into government bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropped to about 4.82%, its lowest since early September, and the two-year yield declined toward 4.48%. Interest rate futures cut the implied probability of a December Fed rate increase to roughly 66%–69%, down from about 83% on Wednesday.
That is the classic channel that supports gold: lower yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding a metal that pays no interest, and a softer dollar makes bullion cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. The U.S. dollar stayed comparatively soft after the midterm results.
Silver, though, carries a heavy industrial component, and the same tech and data-center fears that hammered equities hit expectations for industrial demand. Heavy selling across technology and industrially sensitive markets pulled silver lower even as gold held its gains.
Thursday's economic data added to the mix. Nonfarm business productivity rose at a 3.6% annualized rate in the third quarter, above the 2.8% expected, while unit labor costs fell at a 0.7% annualized rate versus expectations for a 0.6% increase. Initial jobless claims dropped by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 189,000 for the week ended Oct. 31, their lowest since mid-July.
【Oil, Hormuz and a Fresh Inflation Worry】
Renewed attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz pushed crude higher, reversing part of Wednesday's steep decline. Brent crude gained $3.67, or 3.88%, to settle at $98.29 a barrel, while Nymex WTI rose $2.40, or 2.72%, to settle at $90.52. Both benchmarks had fallen more than 8% on Wednesday.
Iranian military authorities claimed five oil tankers and a tugboat were damaged or caught fire in separate incidents involving naval mines in and around the strategic waterway; these claims could not be fully verified independently. British maritime security authorities confirmed a tanker was struck by two projectiles roughly 50 nautical miles north of Qatar's Madinat ash-Shamal late Wednesday. Qatar continues to mediate between Washington and Tehran, though no binding agreement has emerged over sanctions relief, Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, or conditions for restoring normal commercial traffic through the strait.
Higher oil prices cut both ways for precious metals: they support defensive demand for gold, but they also threaten to reinforce inflation expectations and complicate the Fed's policy path.
【Who Is Exposed】
The moves touch anyone holding dollar-denominated metals, whether through futures, ETFs or spot accounts — and the currency translation matters for Canadian and European investors, since a softer dollar changes the local-currency value of the same ounce of gold.
Silver's split personality is on display: it trades as both a monetary metal and an industrial input, so a tech-led equity selloff can hit it from the demand side even while safe-haven flows support gold. Mining and resource shares in Canada and Europe held up better than technology, reflecting that distinction.
The Bank of England raised its benchmark rate to 4.00%, underscoring how inflation concerns and deteriorating financial-market sentiment are pulling policy in different directions across major economies.
Attention now turns to Friday's October U.S. employment report at 8:30 a.m. EST, with economists expecting nonfarm payrolls to rise by roughly 65,000 and the unemployment rate to hold near 4.2%. The preliminary November University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey follows at 10 a.m. EST.
For traders using leveraged metals products, the practical reminder is the same as ever: verify that your platform is registered with a recognized regulator, enable two-factor authentication, and treat unsolicited messages claiming to be from your broker as suspect. Volatility sessions like Thursday's are when impersonation attempts tend to spike.
Spot gold held its ground Thursday while Wall Street suffered one of its ugliest sessions in years — and the two moves are more connected than they look.
At the latest verified afternoon quotation, spot gold traded near $4,087.26 an ounce, up $25.93, or 0.64%, according to Kitco. Spot silver went the other way, trading near $51.778, down $0.407, or 0.78%. Gold had earlier touched $4,148.00, its highest intraday level since Oct. 20, before fading as the equity selloff deepened.
【A 1,833-Point Drop Sends Investors Hunting for Cover】
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, to close at 51,523.06. The S&P 500 dropped 4.36% to 7,353.73 — its steepest daily decline since April 2025 — while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled roughly 5.52% to near 24,315, sliding into correction territory after falling nearly 12% from its October peak. The Russell 2000 lost about 4.4% to 2,729.89.
The damage was concentrated in semiconductors and artificial intelligence names. Nvidia fell about 9.3%, Advanced Micro Devices lost 17.3%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped roughly 12%. Canada's S&P/TSX Composite fell about 1.53% to near 35,785, with technology shares leading the decline. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 slipped about 0.6% to the 653-point area, Germany's DAX lost about 0.4% to near 26,330, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed roughly 0.5% to around 10,771.
The trigger: Democratic victories in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections put both chambers of Congress under Democratic control, raising expectations for tighter oversight of AI investment, data-center development and related energy infrastructure. Worries that regulation or construction delays could dent demand for chips and cloud capacity fed the tech rout.
【Why Gold Caught a Bid While Silver Did Not】
As equities fell, money moved into government bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield dropped to about 4.82%, its lowest since early September, and the two-year yield declined toward 4.48%. Interest rate futures cut the implied probability of a December Fed rate increase to roughly 66%–69%, down from about 83% on Wednesday.
That is the classic channel that supports gold: lower yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding a metal that pays no interest, and a softer dollar makes bullion cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. The U.S. dollar stayed comparatively soft after the midterm results.
Silver, though, carries a heavy industrial component, and the same tech and data-center fears that hammered equities hit expectations for industrial demand. Heavy selling across technology and industrially sensitive markets pulled silver lower even as gold held its gains.
Thursday's economic data added to the mix. Nonfarm business productivity rose at a 3.6% annualized rate in the third quarter, above the 2.8% expected, while unit labor costs fell at a 0.7% annualized rate versus expectations for a 0.6% increase. Initial jobless claims dropped by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 189,000 for the week ended Oct. 31, their lowest since mid-July.
【Oil, Hormuz and a Fresh Inflation Worry】
Renewed attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz pushed crude higher, reversing part of Wednesday's steep decline. Brent crude gained $3.67, or 3.88%, to settle at $98.29 a barrel, while Nymex WTI rose $2.40, or 2.72%, to settle at $90.52. Both benchmarks had fallen more than 8% on Wednesday.
Iranian military authorities claimed five oil tankers and a tugboat were damaged or caught fire in separate incidents involving naval mines in and around the strategic waterway; these claims could not be fully verified independently. British maritime security authorities confirmed a tanker was struck by two projectiles roughly 50 nautical miles north of Qatar's Madinat ash-Shamal late Wednesday. Qatar continues to mediate between Washington and Tehran, though no binding agreement has emerged over sanctions relief, Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, or conditions for restoring normal commercial traffic through the strait.
Higher oil prices cut both ways for precious metals: they support defensive demand for gold, but they also threaten to reinforce inflation expectations and complicate the Fed's policy path.
【Who Is Exposed】
The moves touch anyone holding dollar-denominated metals, whether through futures, ETFs or spot accounts — and the currency translation matters for Canadian and European investors, since a softer dollar changes the local-currency value of the same ounce of gold.
Silver's split personality is on display: it trades as both a monetary metal and an industrial input, so a tech-led equity selloff can hit it from the demand side even while safe-haven flows support gold. Mining and resource shares in Canada and Europe held up better than technology, reflecting that distinction.
The Bank of England raised its benchmark rate to 4.00%, underscoring how inflation concerns and deteriorating financial-market sentiment are pulling policy in different directions across major economies.
Attention now turns to Friday's October U.S. employment report at 8:30 a.m. EST, with economists expecting nonfarm payrolls to rise by roughly 65,000 and the unemployment rate to hold near 4.2%. The preliminary November University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey follows at 10 a.m. EST.
For traders using leveraged metals products, the practical reminder is the same as ever: verify that your platform is registered with a recognized regulator, enable two-factor authentication, and treat unsolicited messages claiming to be from your broker as suspect. Volatility sessions like Thursday's are when impersonation attempts tend to spike.
