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Gold prices experience steep drop of over five percent in one day

Published: 22 Oct. 2025, 12:44 Updated: 22 Oct. 2025, 16:45

Gold bars are displayed at a gold jewellery shop in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh on May 8, 2012. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Global gold prices, which had been on a historic climb, plummeted more than 5 percent in a single day on Tuesday.

Spot gold was trading at $4,115.26 per ounce as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, down 5.5 percent from the previous session, according to Reuters. The news agency said this marked the steepest one-day drop since August 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gold futures also tumbled. December delivery contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 5.7 percent to $4,109.10 per ounce.

Gold prices had surged nearly 60 percent this year alone, continuing a sustained rally. Just the day before, spot prices had hit a new all-time high of $4,381 per ounce.

However, concerns over the rapid ascent, combined with strong third-quarter earnings reports from major U.S. companies, prompted investors to shift away from the safe-haven metal and back into riskier assets.

Bloomberg noted that liquidity was further weakened as India — the world’s largest gold buyer — closed markets for Diwali, the country’s biggest Hindu festival.

“Better risk appetite in the general marketplace early this week is bearish for the safe-haven metals,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at metals information provider Kitco Metals.

Silver prices also plunged. Spot silver dropped 7.6 percent to $48.49 per ounce, posting a deeper decline than gold.

Investor attention is now focused on the upcoming release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September, scheduled for Friday. Although the U.S. federal government’s temporary shutdown halted key economic data releases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said it would announce the CPI on Friday — nine days later than originally planned.

The CPI reading is expected to be a major variable in the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting slated for next Tuesday to Wednesday.

Gold, which does not yield interest or dividends, typically rises in price when real interest rates in the United States fall.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]