Gold & Precious Metals Corner

Thursday, 2026-10-01 · covering the last 24h

Market signal

Gold holds firm as a hot ISM prices-paid print meets a resilient jobs backdrop, with Friday's payrolls now the swing factor. Spot gold traded near $4,159/oz in U.S. dealing Thursday, up roughly 0.1% on the session, while spot silver held near $60.98, up about 0.2%, leaving the gold/silver ratio near 68.2. The September ISM Manufacturing PMI printed 54.5 (vs. 55.0 expected, 54.6 in August), but its prices-paid sub-index jumped to 77.9 from 71.1 — a fresh inflation signal — even as initial jobless claims fell to 197,000, below forecasts and pointing to continued labour-market resilience. The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.34%, its highest since 2002, and the dollar index pushed to a fresh year-to-date high near 101.85; both are headwinds gold is for now absorbing rather than being pushed lower by. Friday's September non-farm payrolls report is the next scheduled catalyst for Fed pricing. Kitco PM Report · Seeking Alpha (ISM data)

Upstream — miners, streamers & supply

No material update on the complex's open threads today: Gold Fields' weighing of a cash-heavier Northern Star bid remains unconfirmed as of writing, Sibanye-Stillwater's unfair-labor-practice strike at Stillwater East (Nye) and the Columbus metallurgical complex continues with no new talks reported, and Mali's separate 72-hour administrative-staff stoppage lapses today as scheduled with no resolution announced — all already flagged in recent editions, nothing new to add.

Physical & official flows — central banks, ETFs & bullion

Physical silver demand doubles at the dealer counter as rising yields keep a lid on gold. USAGOLD's Thursday retail report flagged a doubling in day-over-day physical silver order volume even as gold stayed capped near $4,167/oz against the backdrop of this week's yield move — a sign retail buyers are using the pullback from recent highs to add bullion rather than stepping back. No fresh central-bank purchase disclosures landed in the window (the WGC's next monthly data isn't due until early-to-mid October), and Shanghai/India premiums and COMEX/LBMA inventories showed no new dislocation beyond what's already been reported this month. USAGOLD Daily Report

Silver & PGMs — the industrial complex

No new industrial-demand, recycling or hedging data broke in the window; platinum and palladium continue to trade off the same yields-and-dollar tape as gold (see Market signal) rather than a fresh fundamentals story. The Silver Institute's sixth-consecutive-deficit call and the solar sector's thrifting-driven pullback in PV silver demand, both already reported, remain the operative reference points.

The Chatter

Ronald-Peter Stöferle — Incrementum, "In Gold We Trust" (Precious Metals Summit, Beaver Creek): speaking Sept. 25, Stöferle argued gold is mid-way through a "remonetization" cycle as central banks accumulate and repatriate bullion and "trust is being repriced" in the monetary system; he floated a "Corporate Gold Standard" case for miners to hold part of their treasury in bullion, and reaffirmed Incrementum's long-term (2030) gold target of $8,900 — a multi-year thesis, not a near-term call. Kitco News (video)

Otherwise a quiet window for fresh named commentary: with markets pinned on Friday's payrolls, the tracked fintwit and Substack voices mostly held fire rather than publishing new arguments in the last 24 hours.