Gold Rallies Nearly $75 After 11% Pre-Midterms Plunge; Silver Rebounds

GOLD and SILVER PRICES edged higher on Monday from last week's new 1-year lows, while oil prices fell and equity markets steadied after Friday's sell-off, with investors adjusting positions ahead of Tuesday's US midterm elections, writes Atsuko Whitehouse at BullionVault.

BullionVault's comparison of gold prices over the 40 trading sessions preceding the past 4 midterm elections shows no consistent pattern, with the precious metal rising twice and falling twice.

Afterwards however, gold priced in the Dollar rose over the following roughly 8 weeks (40 trading sessions) each time, gaining 2.8% after 2010's vote for Congress, 0.5% in 2014, 3.9% in 2018 and 11.9% in 2022 from the day of those elections.

This time gold has lost 11.0% over the 8 weeks preceding Tuesday's vote, the steepest pre-mid-term loss among any of the 5 shown in BullionVault's chart.

Results from Tuesday's US mid-term voting for the Senate and the House of Representatives will begin emerging late tomorrow evening, with further results then due overnight into Wednesday.

While opinion polls say the Democratic Party is set to win the House of Representatives, the Senate remains too close to call, and overall control of Congress may take several days to become clear if key mid-term races are close.

Spot gold prices rose almost $75 per troy ounce today from Friday night's close to touch $3948 per troy ounce by lunchtime in London.

Silver meanwhile rebounded to $51.25 after ending last week at $49.13 per ounce, the lowest spot market price in 11 months and falling back below silver's 1980 and 2011 peaks after reaching $120 at the start of this year.

"AI is playing an increasingly influential role in gold trading, making it easier for selling to trigger further selling," reckons Jeff Toshima, former Tokyo director of the mining industry's World Gold Council and a regular columnist for Nikkei.

Asian equities were mixed on Monday. South Korea's tech-heavy Kospi reversed early losses to close 2.24% higher, supported by institutional buying and gains in semiconductor heavyweights, while Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.33%.

The mixed performance followed last week's sell-off in US technology shares amid growing concerns about returns on massive AI investment. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.86% on Friday, its steepest daily percentage decline since 5 June, bringing October's loss to 5.30% − its worst monthly performance since March 2025.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 7.2% on Friday and more than 15% over the month.