Gold & Precious Metals Corner

Wednesday, 2026-10-28 · covering the last 24h

Market signal

Gold whipsaws as the Warsh Fed holds rates and keeps a December hike alive. Spot gold eased to roughly $4,045–4,053/oz heading into Wednesday's decision, giving back part of Tuesday's near-1% gain as firmer oil prices revived inflation worries. The FOMC held the federal funds rate at 4.00% with two officials dissenting in favour of a hike; accounts of the two hours that followed diverge — CNN reported gold futures easing roughly 0.7% as the 10-year Treasury yield rose toward 5.05%, while FXStreet described bullion firming after Chair Kevin Warsh told reporters the Fed's prior hikes "are working" and declined to rule out another one in December. CME FedWatch priced the odds of a December hike at around 84%, up from Tuesday's 82%. Silver tracked gold's early softness without a ratio-moving break of its own, and platinum and palladium again had no catalyst. Both Agnico Eagle and Kinross realized average Q3 gold prices above $4,240/oz in results released after Wednesday's close — a measure of how far the plateau has shifted from a year ago — detailed below. CNN · FXStreet · CME FedWatch

Upstream — miners, streamers & supply

Agnico Eagle's free cash flow cools as the Barnat setback bites, but shareholders still collect $478M. Third-quarter net income rose 28% year over year to $1,353M ($2.67/share) as the average realized gold price climbed to $4,264/oz, yet gold production fell 6% to 814,012 oz and production costs rose to $1,193/oz after July's rock-mass movement at Canadian Malartic's Barnat pit permanently cut the mine plan by 370,000 oz; free cash flow fell to $852M from $1,190M a year earlier. Agnico still expects full-year production near the low end of its 3.3–3.5Moz guidance and costs near the high end of both the $1,020–1,120/oz cash-cost and $1,400–1,550/oz AISC ranges, while confirming Hope Bay construction is about 13% complete and on schedule. Agnico Eagle release

Kinross absorbs a rough quarter at La Coipa and Round Mountain; AISC jumps 20%. Attributable gold-equivalent production fell 16% year over year to 424,693 oz and all-in sustaining cost rose to $1,947/oz, as severe winter weather and weaker sulphide-ore recoveries hit La Coipa and start-up issues with Round Mountain's Phase S ore deferred higher-grade tonnes; net earnings held roughly flat at $583.2M ($0.49/share) only because the average realized gold price rose 23% to $4,249/oz, while attributable free cash flow dropped 59% to $281.3M. The company reiterated the lowered guidance it flagged on September 23 — 1.84–1.86Moz attributable for 2026 at $1,850–1,900/oz AISC — and said first gold was poured from Bald Mountain's Redbird 1 pit in early October. Kinross Q3 2026 results (SEC filing)

No fresh news from the royalty/streaming trio, the other majors, or on mining policy this window. Ghana's local-contractor audit (filings due October 31) remains pending, and AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick's own Q3 prints follow on October 30 and November 9.

Physical & official flows — central banks, ETFs & bullion

Equally quiet on the official side: still no September central-bank tally from the World Gold Council, no ETF sponsor disclosed an unusual GLD/SLV creation or redemption, and Shanghai and Indian premiums stayed out of the news this window.

Silver & PGMs — the industrial complex

Nothing new on the industrial side either — no South African PGM labour or power disruption, no recycling or hedging disclosure, and no change to the standing 2026 silver-deficit debate. Silver's intraday softness was the same positioning move noted above, not a fresh demand story.

The Chatter

A sixth straight quiet window for the regular roster: nothing newer and freely accessible cleared the bar today from Lyn Alden, Luke Gromen, Tavi Costa, Jan Nieuwenhuijs, GoldFix's Vince Lanci, Ross Norman or the World Gold Council's own analyst team, and Incrementum has published nothing beyond its May "Back to the Monetary Future" report. Rather than stretch for something that isn't there, we're leaving the slot empty today.