Strengths
- The best performing precious metal for the week was palladium, up 3.27%. Palladium-backed ETFs added 4,411 troy ounces in the latest session. That single-day inflow contrasted with gold, which saw its eighth consecutive day of outflows, with silver's total holdings now at roughly 785.6 million troy ounces worth about $53.37 billion.
- According to Scotia, Tether has emerged as a new gold buyer, adding further to official-sector-adjacent demand. Tether purchased six tons of gold in the first quarter of 2026, lower than 27 tons purchased in the fourth quarter of 2025, with gold holdings equivalent to 132 tons. Including Tether’s XAUT gold token (22 tons), Tether’s combined gold holdings are estimated at 154 tons, placing it among the top 20 official holders.
- Aya Gold & Silver is showing strength on its addition to the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX), effective June 19, which should boost the stock's liquidity and visibility among a broader investor base. The company continues to advance its strategy around its Boumadine polymetallic project in Morocco alongside its existing Zgounder silver mine, building on the momentum from the index inclusion.
Weaknesses
- The worst performing precious metal for the week was platinum, still up 1.97%. Valterra Platinum CEO Craig Miller suggested central banks could eventually add platinum to their reserves as a natural extension of the de-dollarization trend that has already driven heavy gold buying, with reserve banks adding roughly 1,000 tonnes of gold over the past four years. Platinum's spot price more than doubled in 2025 on precious metal and industrial demand.
- Bolivia’s central bank fulfilled the first delivery under its gold forward sales program on Monday, transferring 4.3 tons of gold, according to a statement. The delivery corresponds to a transaction arranged in June 2025 by the previous administration as part of a broader agreement to sell 6.6 tons of gold forward to raise cash amid a shortage of foreign currency, reports Bloomberg.
- According to UBS, investors remain focused on whether recent PGM price weakness reflects underlying demand or inventory-driven effects, particularly given uncertainty around recycling flows and the impact of U.S. policy incentives. Management teams broadly challenged assumptions around accelerating recycling growth for PGMs.
Opportunities
- Scotia expects central banks to remain active net buyers in 2026, with estimated purchases of 650 tonnes. They see this demand as supportive for bullion and factor it into a 30% risk premium in their gold price versus fair value model, noting that official-sector buying is strategic—driven by diversification away from the U.S. dollar and gold’s role as an alternative reserve asset.
- Silvercorp reported an updated technical report for the Ying Mining District, highlighted by a 50% increase in mineral reserve tons and a 20% increase in contained silver to 106 million ounces. The update also includes a 90% increase in resource tons, at lower average grade due to lower cut-off grades. They outline a 17-year mine life to 2042, with production growth from higher throughput and further upside potential from resource conversion and exploration, according to BMO.
- More central banks than ever expect to increase their gold reserves, a sign that one of the key forces behind bullion’s record-breaking rally remains intact despite this year’s pullback. In a survey of 74 central banks, 45% said they plan to buy in the coming year, the biggest-ever share in data collected by the World Gold Council and YouGov Plc since 2018.
Threats
- As per World Gold Council (WGC) data, global production in 2025 totaled 3,817 tons, a 2.0% year-on-year increase. The growth can be attributed to production increases in Ghana (+32.6 tons), Russia (+15.0 tons), and Canada (+10.5 tons); partially offset by material declines in Indonesia (-34.4 tons), the United States (-6.0 tons), and Mexico (-4.0 tons). China remained the top global gold producing country with 384 tons of gold production in 2025.
- Zijin’s planned $4 billion all-cash acquisition of Allied Gold has cleared host-country regulators but is now stalled in Beijing, where Chinese authorities are reportedly questioning the price and political risk of the assets. This raises the risk of further delays or even cancellation, with some estimates suggesting more than a 50% chance that the NDRC rejects the deal or only approves it with strict conditions.
- Interest rates are turning into a headwind for gold after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish debut sent traders piling into rate-hike bets, with two-year Treasury yields jumping the most since April 2025 and half of Fed members now projecting a hike by year-end. Higher rates raise the opportunity cost of holding a non-yielding asset like gold, making the renewed conviction behind the Fed's inflation fight a real threat to the metal's appeal even as some of that repricing has eased slightly alongside falling oil prices.
