Gold is trading lower for the second consecutive session, following a decline of more than 3% on Friday, as Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh pledged to bring inflation back to the central bank’s 2% target — a commitment that investors interpreted as signalling higher interest rates before year-end.
The yellow metal was down 0.38% on Monday morning, after falling more than 1% overnight in what was its worst single session since early June. Despite the recent weakness, gold remains on course to close August with a gain of nearly 10%, which would mark the commodity’s strongest monthly performance since January.
At the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, Warsh reiterated the need to return inflation to 2% and described interest rates as the central bank’s ‘preferred tool’ for achieving that objective. His remarks prompted investors to revise expectations for monetary tightening, with markets now pricing in a greater than 60% probability of a rate increase as early as September.
‘The shift to a more hawkish stance surprised many investors,’ leaving some near-term headwinds for gold likely to persist, Rajeev De Mello, a portfolio manager at GAMA Asset Management, told Bloomberg. De Mello expects prices to trade in a range of US$4,200 to US$4,300 over the coming weeks, while remaining optimistic about the metal’s longer-term outlook.
Rising fuel prices, following a fresh exchange of attacks in the Middle East, are adding to inflationary pressures and compounding the drag on gold. According to US military sources, American forces launched a pre-emptive strike against Iranian rocket launchers positioned on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iranian Army units were observed preparing to fire rockets fitted with mines into the strategic waterway. Tehran’s forces responded with an attack on US military bases in Jordan.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/08/31/mercados/commodities/commodities-commodities/ouro-volta-a-cair-depois-de-ter-vivido-pior-sessao-em-quase-dois-meses/
