Gold continues to struggle and cannot break above the $4,425 level. Silver is almost unchanged around $67.32 after gaining 2.4 percent the previous day. Platinum fell, and palladium was flat.

Technically, the metal sits exactly between the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, and that position accurately reflects the market's condition. Since the July bounce from roughly $4,000, gold has been trading in a range around $4,400 as traders repeatedly reassess Federal Reserve-policy expectations without reaching a sustained conclusion.

The main event for the metal, however, was not a macro release but the failure of another attempt by the US Treasury to calm the bond market. The government's plan to buy up to $6 billion of long-dated bonds failed to impress, and ten-year Treasury yields rose. To be fair, immediately after the announcement, gold weakened to $4,370, but it was quickly bought back.

This is already the third iteration of the program: in August limits were doubled from $2bn to $4bn and produced a short-lived effect; now doubling to $6bn produced nothing. A curious duality emerges that the market is still digesting. Rising yields are formally negative for a non-yielding asset like gold, and gold did react that way intraday. Yet the failure signals that the Treasury cannot steer long yields with technical buybacks, which in turn feeds the debasement narrative that drove gold to August highs. The same episode works against the metal on a daily horizon and for it on a monthly horizon.

The geopolitical backdrop remains tense and weighs on gold through a familiar channel. Brent hit $100 per barrel for the first time since July, and Iran said it would intensify the conflict if the US continues strikes on its territory and infrastructure. The war has now entered its seventh month with no sign of abating, raising the risk of further energy-supply disruptions and, with them, inflation expectations.

Winners from the current configuration are investors buying gold not because of a single Fed decision but as protection against structural risks. This explains why major asset managers have been rebuilding gold positions in recent weeks. Losers are traders trying to guess direction inside the range— every new signal is played out and then extinguished within a few sessions.

Regarding the technical picture, buyers need to reclaim the nearest resistance at $4,425. That would set up a target of $4,480, above which a breakout would become difficult. The farther target lies around $4,540. If gold falls, bears will try to take control of $4,372; if they succeed, a range break would deal a serious blow to bulls and push gold toward the $4,304 low, with a further prospect of reaching $4,249.