Leading investment bank UBS has raised its gold price target by $100 for the first quarter of 2026. The XAU/USD index is hovering around the $3,330 range on Thursday and has been mostly moving sideways for the past month. The precious metal has surged nearly 27% year-to-date and is among the top-performing assets in the market. The steady rise came after central banks, retail investors, and institutional funds accumulated the metal for two years.
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UBS New Gold Price Target For 2026
The global bank UBS wrote in its latest research note that gold prices could reach a target of $3,600 in Q1 of 2026. The bank had previously given a target of $3,500 for the same timeframe and has now revised it. This makes the glittery metal even more bullish, and it could continue delivering results for seven more months.
That’s an uptick and return on investment (ROI) of approximately 8.5% from today up until Q1 of 2026. The value of the glittery metal has been on a steady rise with barely a few dips in the last two years. For a year alone, gold prices have surged close to 33% rewarding investors with double-digit profits. UBS highlighted that central banks massively accumulating gold led them to the new target of $3,600 for Q1 of 2026. The accumulation has not stopped even after the metal surged in value.
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“Central bank purchases should stay strong, albeit slightly below last year’s near-record purchases. We, therefore, now forecast global gold demand to increase by 3% to 4,760 mt in 2025, which would mark the highest level since 2011. We see US macro-related risks, questions over Fed independence, worries about fiscal sustainability, and geopolitics underpinning de-dollarization trends and more central bank buying. In our view, these factors will drive gold prices even higher,” wrote UBS, predicting $3,600 target for gold in Q1 of 2026.