If you’ve checked the charts this morning, you probably saw a bit of a sea of red. Honestly, it’s enough to give anyone whiplash. After a week where we saw the yellow metal absolutely tear through resistance levels to hit record highs above $4,630, things have cooled off just a touch.
Today's price of gold per ounce is currently hovering around $4,596.
Prices are down about $24 from the peak of $4,620 we saw just last night. Some people are calling it a "crash," but let’s be real—it’s more of a technical breather. After a 70% gain over the last year, a $20 dip is basically noise.
But why is this happening right now?
The Fed Scandal and the Flight to Safety
It’s been a wild week for the Federal Reserve. A lot of the recent momentum was fueled by that massive bombshell—federal prosecutors opening an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. When you start questioning the independence of the world's most powerful central bank, people get nervous. Fast.
Investors did what they always do when the "adults in the room" start arguing: they bought gold. We saw a huge rotation out of traditional US assets and into bullion. That pushed us to that $4,600+ level.
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Now that it's Saturday, January 17, 2026, we’re seeing some short-term profit-taking. It’s a long holiday weekend in the US, and big institutional players don’t usually like holding massive leveraged positions when the headlines are this volatile. They’re locking in gains.
What the Big Banks are Saying (And Why They’re Disagreeing)
You’ve got a massive split in opinion right now.
On one side, you have the "cautious" crowd. Goldman Sachs, for instance, has been targeting about $4,000 for mid-2026. Clearly, the market has already blown past that. Analysts like Lina Thomas have noted that while the trend is structural, the pace of the rally has been "relentless," which usually invites a pullback.
Then you have the bulls.
- J.P. Morgan is forecasting an average of $5,055 by the fourth quarter of this year.
- Bank of America’s Michael Widmer is looking at $4,538 as a stable floor.
- Ed Yardeni is the outlier, shouting from the rooftops about $6,000 gold by year-end.
Yardeni's logic is pretty straightforward: he thinks we're in a "commodity boom" similar to the 1970s. He points to the fact that central banks are buying nearly 600 tonnes of gold per quarter. That is a staggering amount of metal leaving the open market and going into deep storage.
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The Silver Shadow
Interestingly, silver is acting like gold on caffeine. While gold is sitting near $4,600, silver is flirting with $90 an ounce. The gold-to-silver ratio is sitting around 51:1. Historically, when that ratio drops, it means investors are hunting for "cheaper" alternatives to gold, which often signals that the overall precious metals bull market has more room to run.
Why Today's Price of Gold Per Ounce Still Matters for You
Look, if you're just buying a gold coin for your desk, a $20 swing doesn't change your life. But for the broader economy, these prices are a warning sign. Gold is the "canary in the coal mine" for fiat currency.
When you see today's price of gold per ounce staying stubbornly high despite a slight weekend dip, it tells you that the market doesn't believe inflation is truly dead. Or, more accurately, they don't trust the institutions tasked with killing it.
We’re also seeing a massive shift in how the US Dollar relates to gold. Usually, when the Dollar goes up, gold goes down. Lately? They’ve been moving together. That is a weird, "glitch in the matrix" kind of behavior that usually happens when people are terrified of a systemic crisis.
Real-World Supply Crunches
It’s not just about paper trading and "fear." There is a real physical shortage starting to brew.
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- Mining Costs: All-in sustaining costs (AISC) for miners like Newmont and Barrick have climbed to about $1,600 per ounce.
- Production Drops: Bank of America projects that North American gold production will actually drop by 2% this year.
- Central Bank Hoarding: Nations like China and various emerging markets are diversifying away from the US Dollar at a record pace.
Basically, you have more people wanting the metal and fewer people digging it out of the ground. That’s a classic supply-demand squeeze.
What to Watch This Week
If you're tracking the price, keep your eyes on the $4,542 support level. We touched that briefly on Friday before bouncing back. If we stay above that, the uptrend is perfectly healthy.
If we break below $4,460, then we might be looking at a deeper correction toward the $4,200 range. But honestly? With the Fed investigation ongoing and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East flaring up again, a massive drop seems unlikely.
The "smart money" is currently viewing these dips as buying opportunities. Whether you're looking at physical bars, ETFs, or mining stocks like Endeavour Mining (which has been a rocket ship lately), the sentiment is overwhelmingly "buy the dip."
Immediate Action Steps
If you're looking to move on this information, don't just jump in blindly.
- Check the premiums: In retail markets (like SJC in Vietnam or local shops in the US), the "street price" is often much higher than the spot price. Right now, some physical bars are trading at a $15-$20 million VND premium in overseas markets—calculate your spreads.
- Watch the CPI: The US inflation report is due later this week. If it comes in hot, gold will likely blast past $4,700. If it’s cool, we might see $4,500 again.
- Diversify the "How": If physical storage scares you, look into vaulted gold services or liquid ETFs. Just remember: if you don't hold it, you don't own it—that's the old-school mantra that's making a big comeback in 2026.
Monitor the $4,620 resistance level. A daily close above that mark would likely trigger a fast move toward $4,800 as shorts are forced to cover their positions.