GOLD erased the last of this week's prior $600 price gain on Friday as US President Donald Trump named Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, while New York's stock markets fell for the 3rd session running but the Dollar rallied sharply from 4-year lows on the FX market.

Reversing Thursday's late rally from the heaviest gold price crash in history, London bullion today fixed below $5000 per Troy ounce at the City's 3pm benchmark auction for the first time since last Friday.

Silver prices meanwhile fell back towards $95 per Troy ounce after fixing around $103 at midday in the world's central bullion trading and storage hub.

Touted as a possible Trump pick for the Fed chair back in 2017, Warsh built a 'hawkish' reputation during his time as a Fed governor under Ben Bernanke's chairmanship, more recently attacking the Fed for "mission creep" in wanting monetary policy to address climate change and financial inclusion.

"The more central bankers wander from their core mission, the more they put their independence at risk," Warsh said last spring.

Today's price drop still gave gold its 4th new record week-end finish in a row in London − the world's central bullion trading and storage hub − while silver had earlier set its 9th record-high Friday fix in a row, matching the record run ending in mid-February 1974.

"I have known Kevin for a long period of time," President Trump said on the TruthSocial platform he owns today, "and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.

"On top of everything else, he is 'central casting', and he will never let you down."

But "we need strong, sound and steady leadership at the Federal Reserve," said the President when nominating current Fed chair Jerome Powell back in November 2017.

"Jay...will provide exactly that type of leadership...and will put his considerable talents and experience to work leading our nation's independent central bank."

Trump has since repeatedly lambasted Powell as 'too late' and a 'moron' for not cutting interest rates further, most recently on Thursday after the Fed's first decision of 2026 paused its run of rate cuts for the first time since July. 

Powell is also now subject to a Department of Justice investigation, a move he says aims to curb Fed independence amid "the administration's threats and ongoing pressure [against] setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President."

"Alex Pretti's stock has gone way down," President Trump also tweeted on Friday, calling the VA nurse shot dead by immigration enforcement agents last week an "agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist" after video emerged of the protester kicking out the lights on a ICE vehicle several days earlier.

With gold and silver erasing this week's price surge, betting on the Fed's next rate cut continued to see no change before June according to the CME derivatives exchange's FedWatch tool. But longer-term borrowing costs edged up to 4.25% per annum on 10-year Treasurys and inflation-protected yields rose back to 1.90% per annum on 10-year TIPS.

Having spiked and slumped alongside precious metals and Microsoft's stock yesterday, US copper futures fell to what was a new record high at the start of this month near $6 per pound, while aluminium also fell further from new all-time highs in London, where the open of LME trading was delayed by an hour due to a technical 'glitch'.