Gold prices swung violently over the past week, surging to fresh record highs before suffering their steepest daily decline in more than a decade. The rapid reversal pushed prices back below key psychological levels, underscoring how compressed and volatile the move has been.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Christopher Louney, director of natural gas and gold strategy at RBC Capital Markets, about what drove the sudden selloff, how investors should interpret the pullback and why the broader macro backdrop may still support gold later this year.
Key Takeaways
- Gold’s drop below US$5,000 per ounce matters less psychologically than the speed and scale of the reversal within a single week.
- The selloff followed an unusually fast rally, making a correction likely once momentum stalled and sentiment shifted.
- A rebound in the U.S. dollar and easing fears around Federal Reserve independence removed key drivers behind gold’s surge.
- Despite the pullback, uncertainty, central bank demand and a supportive macro backdrop remain intact for gold.
- Gold may consolidate near current levels before grinding higher later in the year, rather than repeating last week’s explosive move.
Read the full transcript below:
ANDREW: Gold rose and then crashed. Last week, it blasted through US$5,500 an ounce for the first time, then slumped on Friday. Our guest says dropping below US$5,000 on the way down may not be as big a deal as it was on the way up, but the fact this all happened in a single week is important. We’re joined by Christopher Louney, natural gas and gold strategist at RBC Capital Markets. Christopher, thanks very much for joining us.
CHRISTOPHER: Thank you for having me back.
ANDREW: What do you think? There were multiple reasons at play, but why do you think gold really crashed on Friday?
CHRISTOPHER: Part of it is just the momentum of gold’s rally. Anything moving that quickly and that much higher is prone to some sort of retrenchment, and we saw that correction unfold. There was a trigger, obviously, with the announcement of Kevin Warsh as the nominee for Fed chair and the consequences we saw in the dollar, where a lot of the dollar weakness reversed in a very short period of time. A lot of the sentiment driving gold was linked to uncertainty and dollar weakness, so seeing that change suddenly really unleashed the move lower. Overall, I think this is probably a healthy correction for the gold market and could give it room for a more measured pace from here.
ANDREW: Your take is that despite this selloff — and I know it’s fast-moving — a couple of days ago your view was that gold could still grind higher from here.
CHRISTOPHER: It was a busy week. If you look through our research over the course of last week, earlier on we did not change our view. Our longstanding view is that gold should spend most of its time in the US$4,500 to US$5,000 an ounce range in 2026 and probably finish toward the higher end, with a fourth-quarter average of about US$5,203. That view didn’t change. What we highlighted earlier in the week was that if we saw 2025-type price gains — which we still can’t completely write off — prices could move toward US$7,000. That’s not our base case, but it remains a possibility. The factors underpinning gold’s move in 2025 and into 2026 largely remain intact. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market, investors are looking for hedges, central banks are buying, and the macro backdrop remains gold-positive. None of those themes have been disrupted despite the volatility. Wherever gold settles as this correction unfolds could be an entry point, as prices may grind higher again. We still expect gold to trade mostly in the US$4,500 to US$5,000 range, with room to finish higher later in the year.
ANDREW: It sounds like you’re not calling for US$5,500 again in the near term.
CHRISTOPHER: No. I think where we settle after this correction leaves room for a grind higher. What we learned in 2025 and into 2026 is that uncertainty can come from many sources. We can’t write off a rally driven by that uncertainty, but we’re not expecting moves like we saw last week to repeat in the near term.
ANDREW: What about silver? It’s outpaced gold over the past year, but it’s also been sliding. What’s your view there?
CHRISTOPHER: What happened in gold also played out across the broader metals complex, and silver was no exception. Silver benefits from a different story as well, but uncertainty is a factor across precious metals broadly. That theme is shared across the complex, and there are reasons to view this correction as a healthy move, not just for gold but for metals more generally.
ANDREW: Silver was down about 26 per cent on Friday, with some pointing to speculative money out of China. Christopher, thanks very much.
CHRISTOPHER: Thank you for having me.
ANDREW: Christopher Louney, natural gas and gold strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Feb. 2, 2026 interview with Christopher Louney are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
