Gold (GC=F) futures opened at $4,368.30 per troy ounce Monday, up 0.9% from Friday’s closing worth of $4,329.60. The worth of gold rose above $4,400 in early buying and selling.
Elevated geopolitical threat after a U.S. strike in Venezuela supported gold demand. The U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, transporting them to New York to face expenses associated to drug trafficking and gang working. Leaders in Cuba, Russia, and Iran criticized the assault. President Trump subsequently stated the U.S. would run Venezuela and take over the nation’s oil belongings.
Geopolitical tensions and wars usually improve demand for gold, a safe-haven asset. On this case, the upper gold demand coincides with a stronger U.S. greenback. After declining greater than 9% in 2025, the U.S. Greenback Index (DX-Y.NYB) has gained 0.37% thus far in 2026.
The opening worth of gold futures on Monday rose 0.9% from Friday’s shut. Right here’s a have a look at how the opening gold worth has modified versus final week, month, and yr:
One week in the past: -0.1%
One month in the past: +3.9%
One yr in the past: +64.3%
Gold’s one-year achieve on Dec. 29 was 74.5%.
24/7 gold worth monitoring: Remember you possibly can monitor the present worth of gold on Yahoo Finance 24 hours a day, seven days every week.
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The worth of gold might be quoted in a number of varieties as a result of the dear metallic is traded in numerous methods. The 2 essential gold costs traders ought to find out about are spot costs and gold futures costs.
Study extra: Find out how to put money into gold in 4 steps
The spot worth of gold is the present market worth per ounce for bodily gold as a uncooked materials, typically referred to as spot gold. Gold ETFs which are backed by bodily gold belongings typically monitor the gold spot worth.
The spot worth is decrease than what you’d pay to purchase gold cash, bullion, or jewellery, since your complete worth will embrace a markup referred to as the gold premium that covers refining, advertising and marketing, vendor overhead, and earnings. The spot worth is extra like a wholesale worth, and the spot worth plus the gold premium is the retail worth.
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Gold futures are contracts that mandate a gold transaction at a particular worth on a future date. These contracts are exchange-traded and extra liquid than bodily gold. They decide on the contract expiration date or earlier, both financially or by way of supply. A monetary money settlement entails paying the contract’s revenue or loss in money. Supply means the vendor sends bodily gold to the customer for the contracted worth.
Provide and demand decide gold spot costs and gold futures costs. Elements that affect gold provide and demand embrace:
Geopolitical occasions
Central financial institution shopping for traits
Inflation
Rates of interest
Mining manufacturing
Study extra: Who decides what gold is value? How costs are decided.
Whether or not you’re monitoring the worth of gold since final month or final yr, the price-of-gold chart under exhibits the dear metallic’s regular upward climb in worth.
