Gold and Silver Prices Barely Move as the US-Iran War Escalates

Gold inched up and silver slipped across India on July 17, even as the United States and Iran traded strikes for a seventh straight night over control of the Strait of Hormuz. MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange) gold futures rose 0.31% to ₹141,220 per 10 grams around 9:13 am, while silver futures eased 0.04% to ₹215,950 per kilogram. Brent crude pushed toward $86 a barrel as tanker traffic through the waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil ground nearly to a halt.

That 0.31% gain looks small next to a war that has already pushed oil up double digits this week and a separate rout that wiped billions off AI-linked chip stocks on the very same Friday.

Gold Ticks Higher, Silver Slips Across Six Indian Cities

Retail bullion rates tracked by Mint show the same modest pattern nationwide: 24-karat gold up a touch, 22-karat gold up a touch, silver down a touch. Twenty-four karat gold is the purest retail grade sold in India, while 22-karat, alloyed with metals like silver or copper for durability, remains the default for wedding and daily-wear jewelry.

Chennai posted the highest 24-karat rate of the six cities and Delhi the lowest, a gap that traces back to local jewellers’ association premiums, state taxes and transport costs, not any difference in the metal itself. Bengaluru’s silver stands out too, running well above the ₹215,000 to ₹216,000 band the other five cities cluster around that day.

Oil Climbs Toward $86 as the Standoff Rattles Markets

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery rose 1.32% to $80.09 a barrel Friday morning, while September Brent futures, the international benchmark, advanced 1.33% to $85.35. Oil has jumped 10% this week as the fighting kept tankers away from the strait, NPR reported.

The same crude spike is doing double duty in equity markets. Rising US-Iran tensions stoked fresh worries about inflation and rates, on top of an already jittery selloff in artificial intelligence stocks, Business Standard reported from Tokyo. Gold’s job, in theory, is to absorb that overflow of anxiety. On Friday it barely did.

How Seven Nights of Strikes Reached the Strait of Hormuz

The tension behind Friday’s price moves did not start this week. A ceasefire brokered between Washington and Tehran in mid-June collapsed within weeks, and both sides have been trading strikes since. US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed a seventh consecutive night of American airstrikes on Iran early Saturday, according to CBS News, as ship crews grew too frightened to enter the strait at all.

1. July 9: CENTCOM says US forces hit roughly 80 Iranian military targets, including more than 60 Revolutionary Guard boats, after Iran fired on commercial vessels in the strait.
2. July 13: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it disabled two rogue supertankers; two UAE-flagged vessels are hit by Iranian missiles in Omani waters, killing an Indian crew member.
3. July 15: US forces complete a second wave of strikes, including a 90-minute assault on Greater Tunb Island, one of the islands guarding Iran’s side of the strait.
4. July 17: The US expands its target list to six bridges and power infrastructure in Hormozgan province; Iran retaliates with missiles and drones against Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
5. July 18: CENTCOM reports a seventh straight night of strikes as ships refuse to cross the strait and shipping traffic freezes almost entirely.

The July 17 expansion lands against what President Donald Trump previewed just three days earlier. In a Tuesday interview aired on Fox News, he warned that the following week would bring a new wave of targets.

Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.

Trump made those remarks in the interview that aired Tuesday. By Friday, three days later and a full week before his own deadline, Iran said the US had already hit six bridges and power infrastructure in Hormozgan province. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that attacks on civilian infrastructure are “unacceptable,” and NPR reported that legal scholars have warned such strikes on facilities with wide civilian use can amount to a war crime in some circumstances.

India’s Own Gold-Silver Ratio Is Telling a Similar Story

There is a cleaner way to see the disconnect than watching two numbers move in opposite directions by fractions of a percent: divide one by the other. On Friday’s MCX prices, it took about 65 grams of silver to buy a single gram of gold. Globally, the same math using LBMA spot prices put the ratio at approximately 69.2 to one as of July 14, up from a low near 55 to one back in May.

Both figures sit near the high end of the metal’s modern 50-year range of roughly 60 to 70 to one. A high ratio signals silver is cheap relative to gold; a compressed one signals silver catching up. The widening has a specific driver: a hawkish Federal Reserve that slows growth weighs on silver’s industrial side directly, while gold, which carries no factory demand to protect, has no equivalent drag.

The same mechanism showed up twice in recent weeks, in a hawkish Fed hold that had already capped metals’ gains, and before that, in gold surrendering early gains as the dollar rebounded from a weekly loss. Supply data cuts the other way, though. The Silver Institute projects a sixth consecutive annual deficit for 2026, a shortfall of 46.3 million ounces, wider than 2025’s 40.3 million ounce gap, after six years of drawdowns pulled 762 million ounces from above-ground stockpiles since 2021.

A Different Kind of Rout Hit Chip Stocks the Same Day

Thousands of miles from the Gulf, a separate selloff wiped billions off Asian chip stocks on Friday, driven by doubts over whether heavy AI spending will ever pay for itself.

• SoftBank Group closed 9.2% lower despite having poured tens of billions of dollars into AI ventures.
• Tokyo Electron, a chip equipment maker, lost 9%.
• Advantest slid 9.4% even after posting record profit and revenue, a sign investors are punishing growth stories rather than earnings misses.
• Kioxia, the memory chipmaker, plunged more than 14% after a Texas jury ordered it to pay $229 million in damages for infringing a Viasat patent.

Taiwan’s TSMC fell 3.64% a day after posting a sharp profit jump that beat market expectations, evidence that strong earnings are no longer enough to hold up AI-linked valuations. Investors are treating it as “another wipeout for U.S. tech and AI, with recent momentum winners taking another leg lower,” Andrew Jackson, a strategist at Ortus Advisors, told CNBC.

SoftBank’s own founder, Masayoshi Son, addressing the same worries at SoftBank World 2026 in Tokyo this week, dismissed AI bubble concerns as “absurd” and argued AI could add $46 trillion to global revenue. His own stock fell 9.2% two days later anyway.

What Happens if Iran Actually Shuts the Strait?

If Iran manages to fully close the Strait of Hormuz rather than just disrupt it, the roughly fifth of the world’s oil and gas that moves through the waterway needs new routes overnight, and the safe haven bid running under Friday’s 0.31% gold move would likely turn into something far larger.

CENTCOM says its forces have helped move more than 800 commercial vessels and 380 million barrels of crude through the strait since early May, and that some 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and gas transits the waterway. That flow has slowed to a trickle this week. Just 15 ships crossed the strait on one Wednesday, and one of them, the M/T Belma, came under fire anyway.

The CEO of a Greek maritime risk management firm told CBS News that shipping conditions had reverted to “the worst case scenario,” adding, “nobody is willing to move.” Jordan’s army says it shot down 10 Iranian missiles overnight with no casualties, and Kuwait has asked residents to ration electricity after an Iranian strike on a power and water plant.

Gold moved 0.31% on the seventh night of strikes. Ships stopped moving at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do Gold Rates Differ Between Indian Cities?

Gold trades off the same international benchmark nationwide, but city rates differ because of local jewellers’ association premiums, state-level taxes and transport costs. Silver can vary even more sharply between cities than gold since it is bulkier to move; Bengaluru’s silver rate of ₹219,100 per kilogram ran nearly ₹4,000 above Kolkata’s ₹215,290 on the same day.

What Is the Price Gap Between 24-Karat and 22-Karat Gold?

22-karat gold is alloyed with metals like silver, zinc or copper to make it durable enough for daily-wear jewelry, and it typically prices about 8% to 9% below 24-karat. In Delhi on July 17, 24-karat gold cost ₹140,720 per 10 grams against ₹128,993 for 22-karat, a gap of roughly 8.3%, in line with the usual spread.

What Is MCX and How Does It Differ From Retail Gold Prices?

MCX, or the Multi Commodity Exchange, is India’s commodity futures exchange, where large-lot gold and silver contracts trade and reprice constantly through the day. Retail jewellery prices build on top of those futures with GST, making charges and a jeweller’s margin, so MCX moves show up in shops with a lag and a markup rather than instantly.

Does the Rupee-Dollar Exchange Rate Affect Gold Prices in India?

Yes. Gold and silver are priced internationally in dollars, so a weaker rupee can push Indian gold rates higher even when the global dollar price is flat, and a stronger rupee can mute a global rally. That currency effect runs separately from the safe haven demand driving Friday’s move.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Gold and silver prices are volatile and can change quickly; consult a qualified financial advisor before making precious metals decisions. Figures are accurate as of publication on July 18, 2026.