Dubai gold retreats again, easing from record January levels. Is this a buying window?

Dubai retail gold extends its pullback as global bullion trades without fresh triggers

Last updated: February 05, 2026 | 08:46

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

The softer pricing has started to draw attention from shoppers who had stayed on the sidelines through last month’s surge.

Bloomberg

Dubai: Dubai gold prices eased again on Thursday, extending a cooling trend that has crept into the local market after January’s sharp rally. By 8 am, 24-karat gold was quoted at Dh586.25 per gram, down from Dh593.50 a day earlier, while 22-karat slipped to Dh542.75 from Dh549.50. The softer pricing has started to draw attention from shoppers who had stayed on the sidelines through last month’s surge.

Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.

A choppy start to February

February opened with heightened volatility after a dramatic end to January. Local prices jumped aggressively through the final week of last month, peaking close to Dh640 per gram for 24-karat gold on January 28 before turning lower. The slide gathered pace after January 29, when prices abruptly reversed, wiping out a large part of the late-month gains within days. Early February briefly brought relief with prices hovering near Dh594, yet the momentum faded again this week, leaving rates noticeably below the end-January highs.

Despite the pullback, prices remain well above early-January levels, when 24-karat gold was trading near Dh536 per gram. The month has therefore delivered sharp swings rather than a clean trend, keeping buyers cautious and dealers focused on near-term movements rather than long-term positioning.

Global market loses momentum

Internationally, bullion slipped below the $5,000 an ounce mark amid a lack of fresh catalysts following last week’s historic plunge. Gold has traded in a narrow, indecisive range this week as traders booked profits and waited for clearer signals. Prices remain more than $1,000 below the all-time high reached on January 29, yet still hold gains of over 10% since the start of the year.

Also Read: Dubai gold prices cool after touching weekly highs

Also Read: Dubai gold drops after record rally, following biggest global slide in decades

Also Read: Dubai gold prices climb again after heavy losses

On Wednesday, bullion dropped as much as 1.9% to $4,853.67 an ounce as the dollar strengthened, before stabilising. Earlier in the session, prices had briefly climbed above $5,000 after dip buyers stepped in, though that support proved short-lived. Silver also pared earlier gains, reflecting the cautious mood across precious metals.

Geopolitics and policy in focus

Geopolitical tensions continue to provide an underlying layer of support. Strains between the US and Iran intensified after the American Navy downed an Iranian drone, while President Donald Trump reiterated that diplomatic talks remain ongoing. Reports of difficulties surrounding upcoming nuclear discussions added to market uncertainty, though traders largely treated the developments as background noise rather than immediate price drivers.

Last month’s rally in precious metals was fuelled by speculative momentum, geopolitical unease and concerns over the Federal Reserve’s independence. Market watchers had flagged that the move was stretched, warning that gains had come too quickly. Those concerns materialised at the end of last week, when gold suffered its steepest fall since 2013 and silver recorded its largest single-day drop on record.

- With inputs from Bloomberg.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.