CHART: Gold price holds $4,000 as mining stocks bear the brunt

Gold is heading for its biggest weekly loss since early June as the war-driven surge in oil keeps hawkish Federal Reserve bets alive. In what has become customary on precious metals markets, the fallout for bullion stocks has been much harsher.

Gold swung between gains and losses on Friday, with spot gold up 0.4% at $3,992.12 an ounce as of 10:02 a.m. in New York and Comex futures trading back above the $4,000 mark, but the metal is still down around 3% for the week after Thursday’s slide rekindled rate-hike fears.

June was gold’s worst month since the 2008 financial crisis, and the retreat from January’s peak near $5,600, now roughly 29%, is only the fifth drawdown of more than 25% since 1960, Morgan Stanley analysts noted this week. Silver slipped 0.4% to $55.74 an ounce, near Friday’s eight-month low and down 6.6% this week, while platinum and palladium also fell, with the two down 20.5% and 22.2% respectively in 2026.

The macro backdrop remains hostile. The US and Iran clashed for a sixth straight day, oil is up almost 13% in five sessions, and while swap traders see only a 10% chance of a Fed hike at this month’s meeting, at least one increase is priced in by year-end with a growing chorus of Fed officials warning rates may need to rise.

“Softer US CPI and PPI readings recently supported prices by reducing expectations for near-term Federal Reserve tightening,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, told Bloomberg. “However, the move quickly faded after renewed gains in oil and fresh US strikes against Iran revived concerns that higher energy costs could feed back into inflation.”

Physical buyers are offering little support: Indian dealers quoted discounts of up to $45 an ounce this week, the widest in a month, while premiums in China shrank to as little as par amid soft demand, Reuters reported. Gold ETFs bled $8.9 billion in June, led by $5.5 billion of North American selling, even as first-half flows held net positive at $8 billion on record Asian demand, World Gold Council data show.

40% off their highs

The week’s damage in the equity market has been brutal. Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) has lost 10.8% this week, Equinox Gold (NYSE: EQX) 10.5%, Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) 9.9%, Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM) 8.5% and Fresnillo 8.6%.

Gold is down 7.2% in 2026 and silver 21.5% but among the sector’s US-listed heavyweights, only royalty house Franco-Nevada (NYSE: FNV), off 3.6%, has done better than gold this year. Newmont (NYSE: NEM) has held up best among the producers at -9.3%, with fellow streamer Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) down 12.2%.

From there the losses deepen: Agnico Eagle is off 18.3% this year, Kinross (NYSE: KGC) 19.5%, Pan American Silver (NYSE: PAAS) 19.7%, Coeur 20%, Barrick (NYSE: B) 20.3%, Hecla 25.7%, Mexico’s Fresnillo 26.2%, Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) 26.4% and Equinox almost 38%. The platinum-group producers have fared worst of all: South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW) has lost 43.8% this year and Impala Platinum (NYSE: IMPUY) 31.8%, while Valterra Platinum (NYSE: ANGPY) is down 22.8%.

Measured from their peaks, the drawdowns are deeper still: the median stock in MINING.COM’s universe of leading US-traded gold and copper miners now sits almost 38% below its 52-week high. Hecla is down 58% from its high, Sibanye 62%, Equinox 54%, Coeur 49%, Gold Fields 48% and Agnico Eagle 45%, the tail end of a second quarter in which bullion lost 14% and the world’s 50 biggest mining companies shed $228 billion in value.

This is a give-back of a historic run. Gold ended 2025 with a 65% gain, its best year since 1979, and silver soared 140%, and even now most of the complex remains comfortably ahead over twelve months: Newmont is still up 55% year-on-year, Barrick 67%, Coeur 55% and Hecla 140%, while silver is up 47.5% from a year ago.

Morgan Stanley sees gold moving higher from here, though it cautions the call is “contingent on the Fed refraining from additional rate hikes.” TD Securities’ Ryan McKay has warned that trend-following funds are positioned to sell again if gold breaks toward $3,790, which would put the mining complex under renewed pressure just as Washington’s debate about revaluing America’s own gold reserves reminds investors how much is riding on the metal’s long-term story.

(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)