Overview

• Spot bullion set new highs this week above $3,570 per ounce and held near $3,550 on Friday after a brief pullback, while futures also notched records.
• India’s benchmark prices jumped past Rs 1.07 lakh per 10 grams to fresh records before easing to about Rs 1.067 lakh, with rupee weakness, imports and ETF inflows lifting local demand.
• Heavy official‑sector buying remains a core driver, with Bloomberg‑compiled data cited by strategists indicating foreign central bank gold holdings now exceed foreign U.S. Treasurys for the first time since 1996.
• JPMorgan projects ~$3,675 by year‑end, $4,000 by mid‑2026 and as high as $4,250 by end‑2026, while Goldman Sachs keeps a $4,000 mid‑2026 base case and outlines tail scenarios up to $4,500–$5,000 if private investors rotate from Treasurys into gold.
• Recent soft U.S. labor indicators reinforced expectations for imminent easing, but profit‑taking has added volatility as markets weigh political pressure on the Fed, including efforts to remove Governor Lisa Cook.