Gold Flat, Silver Up as US-Iran Negotiations Continue

 

Gold Flat, Silver Up as US-Iran Negotiations Continue

(Bullion News Network) – Silver and gold prices moved higher on Tuesday during a relatively calm trading day. The spot price of gold remained largely flat, adding approximately $1.25 per troy ounce. Silver saw a bit more price action; the precious metal gained more than $1.50/ozt to cross $77 per troy ounce. The price action drove the gold-silver ratio marginally higher. The shortened trading week began with fresh news and conflicting information coming out of US-Iran negotiations.

Over the long weekend, the United States conducted a number of strikes on Iranian boats and launch sites. The White House claimed that these strikes were in self-defense, and U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that negotiations are proceeding between the two countries.

Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will be a Great Deal for all or, no deal at all – back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before – And nobody wants that!

Iranian officials disagreed with the American assessment. The country’s foreign ministry claimed on Tuesday that the United States’ strikes violated the ongoing ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.

Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave any act of mischief unanswered and will not hesitate in defending the country’s integrity.

The statement reiterated an earlier threat by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who said that further violations of the ongoing ceasefire will be met with a “decisive reciprocal response” by Iran’s military.

Crude oil prices retreated again on Tuesday, shedding more than 3%. The price of crude oil has pulled back by approximately 9% in the past five days, although experts say that the global energy market may not be out of the woods yet. Last week, analysts at HFI Research argued that the global oil market has reached a “point of no return.” According to the analysts, even a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by June 1 would fail to save the energy market from serious supply constraints that could persist for months or longer.

These conflicting signals seemed to have little impact on Wall Street, which saw another day in the green as tech shares led the charge. Micron, a leading producer of memory hardware products that have become crucial to the explosive AI industry, topped a trillion dollars in market cap. Only 14 publicly traded companies in the world have reached a market cap of more than $1 trillion.

On the domestic side of things, we have yet to see rate cut speculation emerge as a major price driver for safe haven assets this year. Expectations for a rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s fell on Tuesday, retreating to 0.8% from last Friday’s 4%, according to CME FedWatch. Still, traders are expected to look to the FOMC for signals as it prepares for a pivotal – and potentially controversial – meeting in June.

Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the new chair of the Federal Reserve last week, replacing Jerome Powell, who is slated to remain on as a Fed governor and voting member of the FOMC. Warsh is still a bit of a question mark for analysts. While he has become a major supporter of President Trump during his second term in the White House, Warsh long held a reputation as an inflation hawk. Trump is expected to push for rapid rate cuts, a frequent complaint he held against former Fed chair Jerome Powell throughout 2025 and early 2026.

But Warsh will take over the FOMC at a time of extreme division within the central bank. The April FOMC meeting saw four dissents, the highest number of dissenting votes since 1992. While Trump-appointee Stephen Miran voted to cut interest rates, the other three dissenters signaled their disagreement with the “rate cut bias” language present in the final committee statement. Even if Warsh intends to begin easing monetary policy, these voters’ historic dissent suggests that Warsh could have a difficult time finding cohesion on the board.

On Friday, traders will be able to review the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index for the month of April. This report could provide more insight into how the conflict in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have impacted consumer prices. If Friday’s inflation report comes with any big surprises, we could potentially see interest rate speculation return as a major demand driver for precious metals.