Gold fell 2.83% on Thursday, October 22, dropping below $4,100 an ounce during the session to a low of $4,020.95. The slide came while Brent crude jumped 2.64% to close at $112.91 a barrel. The low sat under every daily low in gold futures since September 29.
A $4,020.95 low in context
TradingKey’s market recap gives the intraday low as $4,020.95 for spot gold, quoted as XAUUSD. The recap does not give a closing price. At roughly $4,100 an ounce, a 2.83% decline works out to about $116 an ounce.
Gold futures give a measure of where that sits. Yahoo Finance’s daily history shows futures trading between $4,091.20 and $4,216.30 across the sessions from September 29 through October 19. The highest close in that stretch was $4,216.30 on October 9, and the lowest daily low was $4,091.20 on October 7.
Thursday’s $4,020.95 is $70.25 below that October 7 low. It is about 4.6% under the October 9 futures close. The October 14 close of $4,107.90 was the lowest in the table. Spot gold and futures are separate quotes that can differ by a few dollars, so the comparison is approximate.
The prior week’s physical price was higher. Bernama reported an afternoon London Bullion Market Association fixing of $4,147.80 an ounce on October 19, while the October gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed at $4,124.90 on October 20, down from $4,173.30.
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The distance from the recent high is easy to put in dollars. From the October 9 futures close of $4,216.30 to the $4,020.95 low is $195.35 an ounce, so a holder of 10 ounces saw about $1,953 of value disappear at the low. Against the October 19 London fixing of $4,147.80, the low is $126.85 lower.
Why gold fell on a day oil jumped
TradingKey attributes the decline to oil-driven inflation pressure and expectations that interest rates will stay higher for longer, ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. That framing links the two commodities. Higher oil raises the chance that inflation stays elevated, and higher rates make an ounce of gold, which pays no interest, less attractive to hold.
Brent rose after a Houthi attack in Saudi Arabia, and West Texas Intermediate gained 1.42% to $99.09. Stocks fell at the same time. The Nasdaq lost 2.60% to 26,008.86, while the Dow edged up 0.02%.
The Treasury market did not follow the inflation script. Treasury’s real yield curve shows the 10-year real yield falling to 2.64% from 2.76% on Thursday, and the 5-year real yield falling to 2.33% from 2.55%. Real yields are the inflation-adjusted return on Treasury inflation-protected securities.
The 10-year nominal yield closed at 4.96%, down from 5.13%. Gold dropped on a day when both measures of borrowing cost fell. That leaves the oil and Fed expectations, not Treasury yields, as the reason TradingKey gives.
Bitcoin, the other asset often grouped with gold as a store of value, also fell, briefly slipping below $81,000 intraday before recovering to about $81,300, down about 3.5% over 24 hours, TradingKey says. Neither held up on a day when oil rose and stocks fell.
A metal that had already been under pressure
This is not gold’s first sharp drop in recent weeks. Yahoo’s futures closes imply a fall of about 3.5% on September 28, and only June 10, at about 3.6%, was larger among sessions since June. On June 10 futures closed at $4,133.30.
China’s central bank is a buyer of the metal. InvestingLive reported on October 7 that the People’s Bank of China extended its purchases to a 23rd straight month in September, with holdings rising to about 77.5 million fine troy ounces from about 76.7 million in August.
The same report said the value of China’s reserves fell to about $324 billion from about $350 billion, reflecting a decline of more than 6% in gold prices during September. The central bank added ounces in a month when the dollar value of its holdings dropped.
Is the October 28 Fed decision the next test?
The Bursa Malaysia contracts show the same slope further out. On October 20 the November contract closed at $4,141.50, down from $4,190.10, and the December contract through April 2027 closed at $4,157.50, down from $4,206.50. Each contract lost close to $49 an ounce in a single session, before Thursday’s drop. The decline into Thursday was already under way.
The Federal Open Market Committee meets October 27 and 28, the Fed’s calendar shows. TradingKey says markets are positioned for rates to stay higher for longer, and a message that confirms that expectation could keep pressure on gold.
The numbers to track are concrete: whether gold holds above Thursday’s $4,020.95 low, whether Brent stays above $112.91, and whether the 10-year yield stays below 5%. Each moved sharply on Thursday and each feeds the others.
For anyone who owns gold in a coin, a bar or a fund, the open question is whether $4,020.95 was the bottom of the move or a step on the way down, with the Fed deciding next week.
Holding gold after a $4,020.95 low?
Gold can lose 2.83% in a session, as it did on Thursday, and the price does not wait for a decision. Benefit programs that cut Medicare, food and heating costs work differently: they do not follow the market, and most must be applied for.
The related job here is the household budget, which this story does not cover. The Benefits Checklist scans 11 benefit programs, including Medicare Savings Programs, Extra Help and SNAP, with the 2026 income limits, and a 50-state phone directory shows where to apply.
Get the benefits checklist with a 50-state application directory →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
