Gold gains, silver strongly up as geopolitical tensions rise

(Kitco News, Tuesday. Dec. 30th, 2025) – Gold prices are higher and silver prices are strongly higher near midday Tuesday. Both metals have made impressive rebounds from Monday’s huge losses. Geopolitical tensions are on the rise as the year winds down, which is prompting safe-haven demand for the two precious metals. February gold was last up $40.70 at $4,383.90. March silver prices were up $5.75 at $76.23.

Today’s trading action in gold and silver is extra important, as strong follow-through selling pressure from Monday’s huge losses would have produced serious near-term technical damage and destroy the near-term price uptrends. However, the bulls are not out of the woods yet. How the gold and silver markets close on Friday—nearer their weekly highs or nearer their weekly lows—may well set the tone for trading action in the two metals in the coming weeks.

In overnight geopolitical news that leans bullish for the safe-haven metals:

U.S. military strikes dock area inside Venezuela. President Trump said the U.S. military struck a facility inside Venezuela, in what would be a significant escalation in its campaign against drug trafficking operations there. “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump told reporters Monday, confirming comments from last week, Bloomberg reported. The U.S. also carried out another strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters, with the military saying the operation killed two drug traffickers. Trump said he had spoken with Nicolas Maduro “pretty recently,” but dismissed the conversation as unproductive, saying “Nothing much comes of it.” CNN, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday night that earlier this month the CIA carried out a drone attack on a dock along the Venezuelan coast that U.S. authorities believe was tied to a drug gang, Bloomberg said.

China-Taiwan tensions rising. China fired dozens of rockets into waters near Taiwan as part of its most expansive exercises in decades, testing President Trump’s support for the self-ruled island after a major U.S. weapons sale. “The People’s Liberation Army conducted a second day of snap drills on Tuesday, simulating a blockade of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, as part of live-fire exercises encircling the global chip hub. For the first time since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei over three years ago, China announced drill zones cutting into Taiwan’s territorial waters and no-fly warnings for the affected areas,” Bloomberg reported. Flights to Taiwan’s offshore outposts were disrupted, while international routes went mostly undisturbed. China’s latest exercises – dubbed Justice Mission-2025 – come as President Xi Jinping ramps ups pressure on self-ruled Taiwan in an attempt to further isolate the island. That includes launching a campaign against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, after she suggested Tokyo could deploy its military with other nations if China attacked Taiwan, which Beijing considers its own territory.

U.S. warns Iran. President Trump warned Iran that if that nation rebuilds its nuclear program and replenishes its ballistic missiles, the U.S. will take them out again.

The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index slightly up. Crude oil prices are up a bit and trading around $58.25 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently around 4.13%.

Technically, February gold futures bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at the contract/record high of $4,584.00. Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $4,200.00. First resistance is seen at $4,433.00 and then at $4,450.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $4,338.00 and then at this week’s low of $4,416.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 7.5.

March silver futures see Monday’s price action still appearing to have produced a big and bearish buying exhaustion tail, whereby the bulls run out of gas at the high and prices back way off to close near the daily low. Silver also saw a big and bearish “key reversal” down on the daily bar chart Monday. The bulls’ next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at Monday’s record high of $82.67. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $67.50. First resistance is seen at $77.00 and then at $77.50. Next support is seen at $74.00 and then at $73.00.

Posted by:

Jack Dempsey, President

401 Gold Consultants LLC

jdemp2003@gmail.com