Gold Slips, Oil Retreats After US Strikes Iran, Trump Calls for 'Regime Change'
Monday, 6/23/2025 13:07
GOLD PRICES edged lower on Monday, reversing an earlier advance while crude oil also fell back from an early spike and Western stock markets slipped after the US struck three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, directly joining Israel's effort to destroy the country's nuclear program,
writes Atsuko Whitehouse at BullionVault.
Spot gold steadied at $3367 per ounce after spiking to $3396 overnight - its highest since
Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities a week before, and barely $100 beneath
gold's current all-time high of $3500.
Crude oil meanwhile lost four-fifths of Monday morning's earlier jump after Brent had risen as much as 5.7% overnight to touch a new 5-month high amid Iranian moves to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.
"The markets are still not convinced that the US attack on Iran will ultimately lead to a significant rise in geopolitical tensions," says Daniel Hynes, a senior strategist at Australia's ANZ Banking Group.
"That's why we haven't seen investors flock to haven assets."
"It's not politically correct to use the term 'Regime Change' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" wrote US President Trump on his social media platform Sunday following the US 'bunker buster' strikes against key Iranian nuclear research sites.
But the US "is not at war with Iran," said
Trump's vice-president J.D.Vance, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the mission "was not and has not been about regime change," but instead "a precision operation" targeting Iran's nuclear programme.
America has crossed "a very big red line" says Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, warning that the attacks will have "everlasting consequences".
Lawmakers in Tehran voted Sunday to make good on
Iran's threat to cut off vital shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, but the vote is not binding on the theocratic government and a final decision rests with Iran's top security officials.
Around a fifth of the world's daily oil supply goes past Hormuz, so "Iran has little to gain and too much to lose from closing the Strait," says one energy analyst.
"Iran risks turning its oil and gas producing neighbours in the Gulf into enemies and invoking the ire of its key market China."
Gold prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange today edged up by 0.4% to ¥778 per gram and continued to show a premium to London, offering new bullion imports into the precious metal's No.1 consumer nation an incentive of $11 per ounce, twice last week's level and back above the historical norm of $8.
European equity bourses meanwhile edged lower, with the pan-European 600 down by 0.2%, while US stock futures advanced, indicating that share prices may rise when New York opens.
The Dollar Index – a measure of the US currency's value versus its major peers – rose by 0.6%, recovering further from last Monday's 3-year lows.
Prices for silver, which finds nearly 60% of its annual demand from industrial uses, rose 0.4% to $36.16 per ounce.
Both platinum and palladium – also industrial metals, led by use in autocatalysis – rose 1.6% to $1289 and $1065 per ounce, respectively.
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