For stock investors, the Golden Kirin analyst research report stands out as authoritative, professional, timely and comprehensive, helping you uncover potential thematic opportunities. On October 9, spot gold continued to surge, breaking through $4,200 per ounce again during intraday trading with a gain of 1.6%. Recently, international gold prices have experienced a notable pullback, with COMEX gold futures falling below $4,200 per ounce.

On October 8, domestic Shanghai gold broke through the 900 yuan per gram mark, while branded gold jewelry prices had fallen by about 150 yuan per gram from their peak. Driven by the decline in gold prices, the listed price of jewelry gold in Shenzhen Shuibei fell back to 1,061 yuan per gram.

The gold price pullback, combined with holiday promotions, prompted many previously hesitant consumers to make decisive purchases. In addition to popular products such as the "three golds" and "five golds" for marriage, younger consumers' demand for self-reward gold purchases continued to be unleashed, with lightweight pure gold pendants, bracelets, accessories and other small gold items posting standout sales.

Many merchants said foot traffic at their stores has increased noticeably recently, especially among customers with rigid marriage-related demand, who placed orders decisively. Restocking frequency was much faster than last month, and some popular styles even sold out. One gold salesperson said that during the National Day holiday, they brought at least 30 to 40 groups of out-of-town customers to Shuibei every day to buy gold. Xu Lehong, a gold merchant in Shenzhen's Shuibei, Guangdong, said: "Compared with last month, sales this month grew by 20% to 30%. More people got married during the National Day holiday, and with gold prices falling, business has been much better this month."

Regarding the reasons for the sharp decline in international gold prices during the National Day holiday, Wu Zewei, a specially invited researcher at Suning Bank, believes the core driver came from the relatively hawkish policy signal released in the Federal Reserve meeting minutes. On October 7 local time, the Federal Reserve published the minutes of the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy meeting. Most Fed officials expected that another rate hike may still be needed this year to fight inflation. Li Gang, research director of the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, believes the gold price decline was mainly guided by a stronger dollar and rising U.S. Treasury yields, as the market repriced expectations for the Fed's subsequent policy. Although weaker U.S. employment data reduced expectations for an October rate hike, inflation and energy price risks still keep the market worried that the Fed will maintain higher rates for longer, and even that another rate hike within the year cannot be ruled out. High-level valuation correction and macroeconomic repricing are the core short- to medium-term factors suppressing gold prices.

Where will gold prices go next? Shanghai Mid-Term Futures analyzed on October 9 that, on the whole, high energy prices and a strong dollar and high-rate environment may continue to pressure precious metals prices, but the continuation of global central bank gold purchases, brewing concerns over U.S. debt creditworthiness and the approaching U.S. midterm elections are expected to allow gold's safe-haven and allocation value to provide support for prices. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of the gold market, Wu Zewei said that after this round of gold price volatility, the core main line of the fourth-quarter gold market has not fundamentally changed, and the market will still revolve around actual interest rate levels, dollar strength and global central bank gold purchase demand. "The short-term pullback is volatility brought by repricing expectations and will not change the medium- to long-term support logic. Ordinary investors judging buying and selling opportunities should keep tracking U.S. inflation and employment data and observe the direction of changes in the dollar index and real U.S. Treasury yields. At the same time, they should continue to pay attention to the sustainability of global central bank gold purchases and changes in safe-haven sentiment caused by geopolitical situations. Multiple types of signals need to be judged together, and a single indicator should not be used as a trading basis. Investors should avoid the habit of chasing gains and dumping losses in short-term trading," Wu Zewei said.