Gold Price Today: Bullion slides as margin hikes deepen selloff

Gold extended its sharp pullback on Monday, with the market still digesting a fast unwind from last week’s record highs and bracing for tighter margin requirements in precious-metals futures. In early trading, spot gold was down 3.2% at $4,708.19 per ounce as of 5:08 a.m. ET, after an earlier drop of nearly 10% in the session.

The move keeps the focus on how quickly positioning has flipped: gold topped out at a record $5,594.82 on January 29, 2026, and has since shed roughly $900, wiping out much of its year-to-date advance.

Gold Price Today in early trading

Here are key levels and reference points from early Monday’s trading:

What’s driving the sudden drop

Two immediate forces are colliding: forced deleveraging and a macro reset.

On the market-structure side, higher margin requirements in precious-metals futures are intensifying pressure on leveraged positions. The margin changes were announced after last week’s volatility and are set to take effect after the market close on Monday, a setup that can accelerate liquidations as traders prepare for higher collateral needs.

On the macro side, a firmer U.S. dollar has made dollar-priced bullion more expensive for non-U.S. buyers, working against demand at the margin. That currency bid has been reinforced by shifting expectations around the incoming Federal Reserve leadership and what it could mean for policy and balance-sheet decisions.

Futures, silver, and the broader metals tape

Gold’s drop has been mirrored—and in some cases amplified—across precious metals. Silver was down 3.4% in early Monday trading, and it remains far below last week’s peak of $121.64, highlighting how quickly momentum trades have reversed.

The spread between spot gold’s deeper decline and the relatively smaller move in April futures suggests some investors are treating the selloff as a sharp, position-driven adjustment rather than a clean break in longer-term demand. Still, the pace of the decline matters: large, rapid moves tend to create a feedback loop through risk limits, margin calls, and reduced liquidity, especially when volatility jumps around key technical levels.

Macro backdrop: yields, dollar, and policy signals

Gold’s role as a non-yielding asset often makes it sensitive to both the dollar and real-rate expectations. On Monday, the U.S. 10-year yield sat at 4.22%, while the dollar index was modestly higher on the day. That combination can weigh on bullion, particularly when traders are already cutting exposure.

Even so, longer-horizon narratives haven’t disappeared. One major bank forecast published over the weekend kept a bullish medium-term view, pointing to continued central-bank buying and investor demand as key supports—an argument that may re-enter focus once near-term forced selling eases.

What to watch next

Two near-term calendar items could steer volatility this week:

• Friday, February 6, 2026 (8:30 a.m. ET): Employment Situation for January 2026.

• Wednesday, February 11, 2026 (8:30 a.m. ET): Consumer Price Index for January 2026.

Beyond that, the next major waypoint on the policy calendar is the March 17–18, 2026 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. If markets begin pricing a different path for rate cuts—or focus more on balance-sheet tightening—gold’s “macro” bid could shift quickly in either direction.

Sources consulted: Reuters; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Federal Reserve; Trading Economics