Gold Prices Plummeted in Just 91 Days! Why Did They Crash?
Jun 11, 2026
On Wednesday, Comex gold futures closed at their lowest point this year-marking their first official entry into a bear market in four years.
What's particularly disheartening for many precious metals traders is that this occurred amidst increasing uncertainty surrounding the Middle East conflict, as investors scramble for safer havens for their funds. This seems to be a profound irony regarding gold's traditional safe-haven asset status.
Market data shows that the most actively traded August gold futures contract on Comex plummeted 3.6% on Wednesday, settling at $4,133.30 per ounce, marking its fourth consecutive day of decline. According to Dow Jones Market Data, this price represents the lowest closing price since November 2025.
Gold futures officially entered a technical bear market by Wednesday's settlement – meaning their prices had fallen 20% or more from their recent highs in March.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, gold futures entered a bear market just 91 days after their recent highs in March, the fastest pace of a bear market since the peak of the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2008, Comex gold futures prices fell 20% or more from their then-highs in just 23 trading days.
Chris Gaffney, president of EverBank's global markets division, stated that Wednesday's gold price decline was primarily driven by interest rate factors-the May US CPI data exceeding 4% led investors to widely believe that the next adjustment to US interest rates would be a rate hike.
Data released by the US Department of Labor on Wednesday showed that the US May unadjusted CPI annual rate reached 4.2%, as expected by the market, marking a new high since April 2023. This means that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates in the short term. Currently, the market generally believes that the probability of a Fed rate hike this year is far greater than a rate cut.
Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets, stated that ongoing geopolitical tensions are putting upward pressure on oil prices, meaning that inflation will persist for a longer period. "This also means that the Fed cannot easily cut interest rates," he pointed out, noting that gold, as a non-interest-bearing asset, does not generate returns, therefore the opportunity cost of holding gold increases when interest rates rise.
Recent market trends also indicate that the uncertainty surrounding the situation in Iran has consistently failed to boost gold prices, even though gold is generally considered a safe-haven asset.
