The yellow metal punched through to a three-month high on Friday, settling at $4,661.60 per ounce after a 1.9% daily gain — a move that had far less to do with monetary policy mechanics than with a creeping loss of faith in the machinery of American public finance.
Spot gold crossed back above the $4,600 threshold for the first time since mid-May, touching an intraday peak of $4,631.99 before the session closed. US gold futures finished at $4,680.60. The catalyst: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to double the pace of bond buybacks in a bid to cap long-end yields — an intervention that has so far delivered only modest results. Ten-year Treasury yields still hover near 4.70%, while the 30-year sits at 5.25%. Total US…