On August 18, due to optimistic expectations for the trilateral meeting between Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine, safe-haven demand decreased, leading to a significant drop in gold prices. COMEX gold futures briefly fell to $3,368 during the session before recovering slightly by the close. At market close, COMEX gold futures declined 0.14% to $3,378.00 per ounce. By the close of the Asian market, ChinaAMC Gold ETF (518850) rose 0.17%, marking its fourth consecutive day of net inflows, totaling 87.25 million. Meanwhile, Gold Stock ETF (159562) fell 0.83%.

On August 18 local time, former U.S. President Donald Trump met with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. After the talks, Trump held a multilateral meeting with leaders from several European countries, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Everbright Futures Research noted that the Jackson Hole "Global Central Bankers' Symposium" will be held in the latter half of this week, with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday evening. In recent years, Powell has used this platform to make policy announcements that significantly impacted markets. Against the backdrop of heightened market expectations for monetary easing, any signals from Powell’s speech will be particularly crucial and may influence expectations for a September rate cut. Investors should pay close attention. If Powell adopts a more dovish tone, gold prices could regain upward momentum.