AGE Gold Commentary

AGE Gold Commentary is our regular report analyzing trends in precious metals and rare coins. We monitor domestic and international markets and extrapolate from our 30 years in metals to place current events into a hard asset perspective. View archives.

3/23/2026: Higher-for-longer energy costs

Last week, the escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf caused major damage to critical energy infrastructure, sharply reducing global production capacity. Key facilities were hit by Iran, including Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG plant—which supplies roughly 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas—and could take a year or more to fully repair. Bapco Industries in Bahrain declared force majeure after an Iranian attack disrupted its 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery.

Despite President Trump announcing surprise US–Iran negotiations this morning, energy prices are likely to stay elevated for quite some time, and with them inflation. The damage across the Gulf is already significant, and restoring normal oil and LNG flows will take time.

These disruptions are fueling global inflation and market volatility. Last week a widespread liquidity selloff pushed equities, bonds, and precious metals sharply lower. While today’s negotiation announcement has caused a knee-jerk relief rally in equities, many questions remain. Who is negotiating for Iran? Will the joint US and Israeli goals be attained? What happens next if negotiations fail?

In this AGE Gold Commentary, recorded on Friday the March 20 at market close, we break down how key long-term support levels for precious metals have come into play, how the surge in bond yields has neutered the Fed for now, and how a prolonged Middle East conflict could push the current inflationary impulse into a larger, more prolonged wave. We also look at what other markets might be affected if oil prices stay higher for longer.

You can also view this video on the AGE YouTube channel, which includes a transcript.

Sincerely,

Dana Samuelson
President