Silver and Gold Slip as Trump's 'Destroy Iran' Deadline Nears

SILVER and GOLD PRICES slipped Tuesday but held onto most of Easter Week's strong rally as US President Trump vowed not to chicken out of destroying Iran tonight unless Tehran re-opens the Strait of Hormuz before his latest deadline, now set for 8pm Washington time.

With central banks meeting this week expected to hold or even cut interest rates despite the Iran War's energy shock to inflation, gold prices traded around $4650 per Troy ounce, down $25 from last Thursday's finish at what was a record high when first reached in mid-January.

Silver showed twice the loss from Easter Weekend in percentage terms at 1.5%, trading as low as what was a new all-time high at Christmas around $71.50 per Troy ounce.

Both gold and silver showed strong gains last week as market-based inflation expectations rose alongside US crude oil prices. But while West Texas Intermediate jumped back to start-March's sudden 4-year highs above $110 per barrel, the so-called '5-over-5' inflation forecast edged up from what had been its softest reading in almost 12 months.

"This week's set-up is about as event-dense as it gets," says a note from precious metals strategist Nicky Shiels at Swiss bullion refining and finance group MKS Pamp.

Pointing to Trump's "live geopolitical headline expiring on Tuesday," Shiels says this week also brings US inflation data on the PCE measure for February on Thursday plus CPI inflation for March on Friday, "both expected to surprise to the upside."

But despite the Iran War's oil-and-gas energy shock driving global inflation higher, this week's central-bank interest rate decisions come amid "a global easing cycle quietly reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets [such as gold and silver]" Shiels adds, with New Zealand on Wednesday widely expected to cut the cost of borrowing as economic growth suffers.

India follows on Wednesday, with analysts expecting no change as the Sensex stock index jumped today, while Poland and South Korea are expected to hold interest rates unchanged on Thursday and Friday within what Shiels at MKS calls the "broader global easing cycle that has been a quiet but persistent tailwind for gold since late 2024."

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," Trump told Iran by tweet this morning after declaring at the weekend that Tuesday would be "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one...

"Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell...

"I don't want that to happen, but it probably will," the Commander-in-Chief added this morning after telling reporters on Monday that he's "not worried at all" about committing war crimes by attacking civilian infrastructure.

While gold and silver prices slipped Tuesday, European bourses erased earlier gains and New York opened the day lower after reversing 2/5ths of the S&P500 index's steep drop since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began on the last day of February.