The GOLD PRICE fell from 2-week highs against a stronger US Dollar on Wednesday after spiking on President Trump firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook for "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct" in mortgage applications she made four years ago.

Longer-term borrowing costs edged higher worldwide as fears over Fed independence and political interference grew, while global stock markets stalled ahead of quarterly earnings from AI chip giant Nvidia.

"We need people that are 100% above board and it doesn't seem like she was," Trump told reporters after his letter to Cook − appointed by President Biden in 2022, formerly a professor at Michigan State University as well as an advisor to President Obama, and the first African-American woman to serve on the Fed's governing body − was published by the White House.

"[This] lacks any factual or legal basis," says Cook's lawyer Abbe Lowell, vowing to fight Trump's "attempt to fire her based solely on a referral letter" from US Federal Housing director William Pulte.

Pulte last month demanded that Fed chair Jerome Powell should quit over 'lying' about the cost of renovation work to Federal Reserve buildings.

The price of gold in London today hit $3394 per Troy ounce at the start of Asian trade, some $60 above last week's finish, before dropping back to $3375.

Silver prices spiked as low as $38.10 per Troy ounce, a 14-year high when reached in early July amid reports of the London silver market 'scrambling' for supplies but down 2.2% for the week so far.

Longer-term US borrowing costs meantime rose for the 3rd session running in the bond market, with the 30-year Treasury yield rising to its highest since the start of August at 4.95% per annum even as 10-year and shorter-term yields held unchanged.

Including interest payments, longer-dated US Treasury debt has now lost almost 1/8th of its Dollar value since Trump's Election 2024 victory became clear 12 months ago.

Gold prices have in contrast risen by more than 1/3rd.

"Higher term premium at the long end of the curve has been the biggest fallout so far," says news and data agency Bloomberg's strategist Edward Harrison of the extra yield demanded by bond investors after Trump announced that he has fired Cook.

"However, if efforts to gain political control of the Fed gain more traction, we should expect a larger reaction both in premiums and inflation expectations."

Market expectations for inflation have so far held little changed across 2025, ending Tuesday's trade at 2.45% per annum on the so-called 5 over 5 measure.

Thursday will bring revised PCE inflation data for the April-to-June quarter alongside an updated GDP estimate, followed on Friday by PCE inflation data for July. 

"Progress on inflation is very slow now," said New York Fed President John Williams today in an interview with CNBC, denying that a September rate cut is a sure thing.

"It's hard to separate out the impact of tariffs...We are watching services inflation carefully."

But with Trump firing Cook only 4 days after Fed chair Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech signalled that overnight rates will be cut at the US central bank's September meeting, betting in the futures market today put the odds of a cut next month to below 4.25% at more than 9-in-10.

"Cook's departure would allow Trump to pick a majority of the Fed's seven-member board," says Reuters, "including two incumbents and the pending nomination of White House economist Stephen Miran."

World Bank President and "long time Trump ally" David Malpass is also being discussed, claims the Wall Street Journal.

Like silver, platinum prices also held lower for the week so far on Wednesday, trading at what was an 11-year high of $1345 per Troy ounce when reached by the industrially-useful precious metal's big surge of May and June.

Sister metal palladium gave back an overnight rally, trading close to its lowest in 7 weeks at $1090 per Troy ounce.

Gold priced in Euros touched 2-week highs above €2920 per Troy ounce, while the UK gold price in Pounds per ounce rose further above £2500.