Gold prices today, Thursday, August 20, 2026: Gold rallies after Treasury announcement, FOMC meeting minutes

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Gold prices today, Thursday, August 20, 2026: Gold rallies after Treasury announcement, FOMC meeting minutes

Catherine Brock · Contributing writer

Thu, August 20, 2026 at 6:33 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Gold (GC=F) December futures opened at $4,580 per troy ounce on Thursday, August 20, 2026, up 0.8% from Wednesday's closing price. The price of gold is down this morning at $4,535.80 per troy ounce as of 9:03 a.m. ET.

The gold price rose Thursday morning after two significant economic announcements on Wednesday. The U.S. Treasury said it would increase its purchase of long-term bonds as a maintenance measure. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate (^TNX) subsequently declined by more than 5 basis points and the 30-year benchmark (^TYX) fell 9 basis points. The same day, the Fed released minutes from the July meeting indicating several committee members had argued for rate increases.

Traders responded primarily to the Treasury announcement, pushing gold above $4,500 for the first time since early June. Lower interest rates benefit the gold price by reducing its holding cost relative to yield-bearing assets.

Current price of gold

The opening price of gold futures on Thursday, August 20, 2026, was up 0.8% from Wednesday's closing price. Here's a look at how the opening gold price has changed versus last week, month, and year:

• One week ago: +4%

• One month ago: +14.4%

• One year ago: +38.3%

For context, the one-year gain for gold was 95.6% on Jan. 29.

24/7 gold price tracking: Don't forget you can monitor the current price of gold on Yahoo Finance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Want to learn more about the current top-performing companies in the gold industry? Explore a list of the top-performing companies in the gold industry using the Yahoo Finance Screener. You can create your own screeners with over 150 different screening criteria.

Gold IRA: What it is, how it works

If you are socking gold bars away for a rainy day, there may be an opportunity to earn some tax perks in the process. You could establish a gold IRA to hold those assets and diversify your retirement wealth.

Learn more: How to invest in gold in 4 steps

A gold IRA is a specialty form of self-directed IRA that's designed for gold and other precious metals.

Gold IRA vs. traditional IRA

The table below compares the main features of standard IRAs and gold IRAs.

IRS restrictions

You must work with a specialty provider that can ensure your account complies with these IRS restrictions:

1. Storage: Your gold must be held in an IRS-approved facility.

2. Asset types: A gold IRA can hold physical gold, silver, platinum, or palladium — but not all forms of these metals are eligible. For example, gold bullion, silver coins, and bars must meet purity requirements. Additionally, gold bars must come from approved refiners.

Learn more: Gold IRA: Benefits, risks, and how it differs from a traditional IRA

Price of gold chart

Whether you're tracking the price of gold since last month or last year, the price of gold chart below shows the precious metal's value journey so far this year.

(GC=F )

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4,578.50 +33.20 (+0.73%)

As of 12:00:31 PM EDT. Market Open.

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