Spot gold fell below $4,000 an ounce on Oct. 23 after a selloff that wiped an estimated $1 trillion off gold and silver in a single day.
Gold traded at $3,998.72 early Friday in Asia, down 0.63% on the day, and briefly hit an intraday low near $3,986. That left the precious metal roughly 22% under the record of $5,110.50 it set on Jan. 26.
The damage started Thursday as silver sank 5.8% and gold 2.8%, putting the latter’s lost market value at about $810 billion and the former’s at more than $190 billion. Platinum fell 4%, palladium 3.7% and copper 2.8%. By early Friday, analysts estimated the two-day wipeout had amounted to over $1.3 trillion , with silver at its lowest level in 11 months.
At the same time, AI stocks cracked, with the Nasdaq posting its worst day since June and the S&P 500 its worst since July. Normally, a stock rout sends money into gold, but this time investors bought Treasuries instead.
The 10-year yield fell about 17 basis points to 4.96%, and inflation-adjusted yields eased, yet gold still fell. Analysts flagged forced selling as a plausible cause , though they noted the extent of liquidations “remains unverified.”
Veteran trader Peter Brandt could not resist providing his thoughts on the aforementioned developments. He posted a gold futures chart, stating that he was “not predicting it,” but if the slide continues , the “entire 2025 advance gets erased.” He then tagged Schiff directly, adding:
When a follower asked about the timeline, Brandt replied “Maybe 3 to 5 years” while in another reply he said there is “a very good chance” the commodity bull is “on its way to the butcher’s shop.”
Less than a week ago, Schiff told followers that “Gold at $4,145 is a gift.” Anyone who took that advice is now down about 3.5%.
Bitcoin offered no shelter either as its price slipped below $81,000 on Thursday despite more than $1 billion in exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows. As things stand, bitcoin is down 4.1% on the day against gold’s 2.3% (at that point).
Over the full year, though, the score is closer than the gold camp would like. Gold ended 2025 near $4,354 and bitcoin near $87,498. At $4,000, gold is down about 8% for 2026. At $81,000, the bitcoin price is down about 7.4%. Schiff’s long-running “sell bitcoin, buy gold” trade is roughly flat on the year after Thursday.
Technical analysts are watching three gold levels as the Fed’s Oct. 27-28 meeting approaches:
Next week’s Fed decision and U.S. inflation data will likely decide which one gets tested first.
Bitcoin dropped below $82,000 to an intraday low of $80,836 during a late Wednesday sell-off, capping a nearly 4% daily…
