World gold prices have just experienced a week of strong increases, exceeding the threshold of 4,600 USD/ounce and reaching the highest level since the beginning of June. According to the "Valutation Report of the Precious Metals Market" dated August 24, 2026 by one of the world's leading companies in the business, refining and recycling of precious metals in Germany (Heraeus Precious Metals), the precious metal closed the week at 4,615 USD/ounce, up 5.08%, after reaching 4,615 USD/ounce on August 21.
Notably, the new increase occurred after a period of gold accumulation in a narrow range. Heraeus believes this development is similar to the increase in early August, when gold prices jumped by about 7% after spending most of July fluctuating around the 4,000 USD/ounce range.
The most important momentum in the past week came from the move of the US Treasury Department. On August 19, this agency announced that it would sharply increase the scale of buying back long-term US government securities, thereby creating a boost for the gold market.
According to Heraeus, the US Treasury Department will at least double the maximum scale of bond repurchases for terms from 10 to 30 years. According to the current plan, the repurchase scale will increase from 2 billion USD to at least 4 billion USD per repurchase, with activities being carried out in the period from September 9 to November 4.
There are 7 auctions expected to apply a new ceiling, creating at least 14 billion USD of additional purchase capacity.
The market reacted most strongly in the long-term bond group. US 10-year government bond yields fell by about 6 basis points to 4.65%, while 30-year yields fell by nearly 10 basis points to about 5.19%.
Conversely, the 2-year term yield remained almost unchanged, around 4.18%. According to Heraeus, this shows that market expectations about Fed policy in the short term have not changed significantly.
Reduced bond yields have reduced the relative attractiveness of profitable assets compared to gold – an interest-free metal. At the same time, the above developments also put pressure on the USD, thereby further supporting gold prices.
The USD index (DXY) fell by about 0.7% to around 98.8 after the US Treasury Department's announcement. A weak USD often favors gold because the precious metal is valued in USD and becomes cheaper for investors holding other currencies.
However, Heraeus believes that investors should not see the impact from the bond repurchase program as a definite long-term driving force. Large-scale repurchases only started in September, while part of the decrease in bond yields after the announcement has reversed.
Therefore, the current increase in gold may significantly reflect policy signals from the US Treasury Department, instead of being directly affected by the actual amount of bonds bought back. If long-term bond yields increase sharply again, support for gold may weaken.
In addition to factors from the US bond market, the Heraeus report also pointed out another notable signal for the global gold demand outlook: the Bank of Korea (BoK) has made its first gold investment in 13 years.
In the second quarter of 2026, BoK bought 679,765 SPDR Gold Shares certificates, with a total value of about 250 million USD. Calculated by the amount of gold representing each certificate, this investment is equivalent to exposure to about 62,000 ounces, equivalent to nearly 1.9 tons of gold.
The investment does not increase the amount of physical gold in BoK's reserves. The bank's amount of physical gold remains around 104.4 tons, unchanged since 2013.
However, Heraeus assessed that this move shows that BoK is showing interest again in gold. More notably, the bank has announced plans to build a mechanism to allow purchasing domestically refined gold. If implemented, this mechanism could pave the way for the proportion of gold in BoK's reserves to increase in the future.
South Korea's move comes as gold is increasingly seen by central banks as an important reserve alongside government bonds. According to Heraeus, the proportion of gold in central bank reserves globally is trending upwards compared to the proportion of US Treasury bonds.
This creates an additional support layer for gold prices in the medium and long term, alongside familiar factors such as USD, bond yields and monetary policy.
However, Heraeus also warned that the upward momentum of precious metals still needs to face resistance. For the upward trend to be maintained, real yields need to withstand pressure from the Fed's policy outlook, oil prices and fluctuations in the bond market.
With a closing price of 4,615 USD/ounce, gold has increased by more than 5% in just one week and officially surpassed the resistance zone of 4,600 USD/ounce. This development shows that buying power is returning after a period of accumulation, while changes in the US bond market and new moves from central banks continue to be important variables determining the next direction of the precious metal.
