Gold is 20% off its high as industrial miners gain 27.8% in 2026
As of Friday, September 4, SPDR Gold MiniShares GLDM is up 2.8% in 2026 and 20% below its high; iShares metals miners PICK is up 27.8%.
PICK gained 27.8% in 2026; the gold bar did not
- +28%
- +20%
- +16%
- +2.8%
- +0.2%
- −2.0%
Silver is 45% below its high. Platinum futures sit 38% off theirs. Copper is 2.7% from its peak. That split is larger than anything that happened between Monday and Friday.
Gold futures spent Thursday as a rates trade that worked and Friday as one that did not. They rallied 2.8% on Thursday, September 3. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that day the central bank could wait a meeting if the coming inflation data kept cooling. They gave that bounce back the next morning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 162,000 increase in August payrolls, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%, and futures closed Friday at $4,476.6, down 1.4% on the session.
That Friday print was the last labor report before the Fed's September 15-16 meeting. June payrolls were revised up by 11,000, to 31,000, and July was revised up by 44,000, from a 23,000 decline to a 21,000 gain. BLS put the prior twelve months' average monthly gain at 31,000. A number five times that average, on the last jobs report the committee will see, is a headwind for a metal that pays nothing. The 10-year Treasury yield finished Friday at 4.78%; the 2-year was at 4.37%. Futures settled 1.2% below the prior Friday's $4,529.9. The dollar index finished at 99.16, down 0.5% Friday to Friday.
GDX fell 0.4% as gold futures dropped 1.2%
Physical gold funds all landed within a rounding error of -0.5% for the week. The same ounce still costs 0.09% to 0.40% a year, depending on the wrapper.
VanEck Gold Miners GDX, the $29.8 billion global gold-mining fund, graded B at 0.51%, dropped 3.9% on Tuesday, then rose 3.1% Wednesday and 4.0% Thursday, then fell 2.2% Friday. Friday to Friday it was down 0.4%. iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners RING, graded A at 0.39%, was down 0.1%. VanEck Junior Gold Miners GDXJ, the $9.49 billion small-cap gold-and-silver miners fund, graded B at 0.52%, finished up 0.2%.
Gold futures fell 1.2%. The miners moved less, not more. Inside GDX, Anglogold Ashanti was the largest drag, at -3.64%, costing the fund 0.19 percentage points; Northern Star Resources fell 6.50% and cost 0.16; Gold Fields rose 3.13% and added 0.14. RING carried a -6.83% Anglogold print. The 1-month tape is where the leverage still shows: GDX is up 18.3% over one month, against a 4.1% rise in gold futures.
Week is Friday, August 28 close to Friday, September 4 close, total return. PICK tracks global metals-and-mining producers and excludes gold and silver.
Silver's leftover rally, copper's tighter range
Silver did the same two-speed week. Silver futures settled at $66.75, down 1.5% Friday to Friday. The $31.4 billion iShares Silver Trust SLV, graded A at 0.50%, fell 0.3%. Global X Silver Miners SIL, graded C at 0.65%, rose 0.2%. The 1-year numbers still look like a bull market: SLV is up 62.0%, SIL 66.8%. The 2026 numbers do not. Silver futures are down 5.5% year to date; SLV is down 7.1%.
Platinum futures settled at $1,826, down 1.5% on the week and 10.7% year to date. The four-metal basket, abrdn Physical Precious Metals Shares GLTR, graded B at 0.60%, fell 0.5% on the week and is down 2.0% year to date.
Copper rose 0.3% on the week to $6.68 a pound and is up 17.6% year to date. PICK, graded A, fell 1.1% on the week and remains the 2026 leader among the funds on this board.
The same bar, four times the fee
No gold, silver, platinum, or miners ETF launched, closed, or cut its fee this week. The product set did not change. The price of using it did not either, which is the point.
GLD holds $151 billion of the same bullion the $32.4 billion GLDM, graded A at 0.10%, holds, and the $7.87 billion iShares Gold Trust Micro IAUM, graded A at 0.09%, holds. It charges 0.40% and is graded B against MiniShares' A. The flagship still trades about $5.34 billion a day against MiniShares' $618 million, and it has been listed since 2004. abrdn Physical Gold Shares SGOL, graded B at 0.17%, sits in the middle of that ladder at $7.46 billion. Over one week the cheap and expensive physical funds moved together, as they should. Over a year the 0.30 percentage-point gap between GLD and GLDM is a carrying cost on a metal that is already 20% off its high.
On the equity side the liquid book is still GDX, which trades about $2.5 billion a day. RING is 0.12 percentage points cheaper and graded A, and it is a $2.48 billion fund. You are not choosing a better miner. You are choosing whether you need GDX's tape.
The gold overlay funds are a third product. NEOS Gold High Income IAUI, graded A at 0.79%, is up 0.2% year to date and 14.8% over one year. It is gold with calls sold against it, and over one year it lagged GLDM by 10 percentage points.
The September 15-16 meeting is the next print that can reprice the bar. The year's other fact is already on the tape: gold's high at $5,626.8, silver's at $121.79, and copper still within 2.7% of its own.
Frequently asked
Why did gold give back its rally?
A payrolls print running about five times the prior year's average monthly gain, on the last jobs report before the Fed's September meeting, is a headwind for a metal that pays nothing.
Did the miners fall as much as gold?
No — gold futures fell 1.2% on the week while the mining funds moved less, finishing between down 0.4% and up 0.2%.
Does paying more for a physical gold fund get you anything?
The funds hold the same bullion and moved together over the week, so the fee gap is a carrying cost, though the flagship trades far more volume each day.
How did the gold overlay fund compare?
NEOS Gold High Income is gold with calls sold against it, and over one year it lagged SPDR Gold MiniShares by 10 percentage points.