Spot gold (XAU=USD) traded at $3,425 an ounce in Monday London dealings, down 0.5% on the session and 1.7% from the May 1 record of $3,485 the metal hit on Iran war escalation flows. The Comex June front-month gold contract (GC=F) was at $3,422 a troy ounce, with cumulative open interest in the complex remaining high at 745,000 contracts but down from the record 762,000 seen last Wednesday. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) was indicated at $423.18 in pre-market dealings.
The proximate driver was the U.S. real-yield reset. The 10-year U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Security yield rose 4 basis points to 2.06% — a fresh four-month high — after Friday's March PCE print at 2.7% headline and 2.6% core both came in 10 basis points hot. Gold's 60-day correlation to the 10-year real yield reset to -0.74 from -0.65 over the past three weeks. The Dollar Index lifted to 105.20, a fresh 2026 high.
Silver and PGM Read-Through
Silver (XAG=USD) eased to $40.85 from the $41.90 Wednesday peak, with the gold-silver ratio compressing to 84.0 from a recent 86.0. Platinum (XPT=USD) traded at $1,148 — down 1.2% — and palladium (XPD=USD) was at $1,062. The platinum-palladium ratio held at 1.08 against the long-term 0.95 average. Mining equities were marked lower: Newmont (NEM) -2.1%, Barrick Gold (GOLD) -1.8%, Agnico Eagle (