[The Weekly Wrap] Gold Near Two-Month Highs, Strait of Hormuz Oil Prices Whipsaw, and a Blockbuster Workday Buyout Report (10-14 August 2026)

This week’s cut-off for prices and levels is the 13 August 2026 US market close, with early Friday, 14 August (GMT+8) levels flagged separately.

Some weeks tell a clean story. This one didn’t. Markets spent five days trying to decide whether the Strait of Hormuz oil prices saga was resolving or repeating itself, and by Friday they still hadn’t picked a lane. ^[1,2] If you’re catching up on the market news this week in one sitting, here’s the shorthand: gold ran to a fresh multi-week high and largely held onto it ^[3,11], the US Dollar Index spent four straight sessions grinding toward 100.00 only to slip under it again ^[4,6], and Workday stock did something it hasn’t done in years, jumping 17.78% in a single session on a buyout headline that broke on Reuters wires Thursday afternoon ^[7,8].

Read on for the gold price today, this week’s oil price news, and a full week ahead economic calendar so next week’s data run doesn’t catch you flat-footed.

Key Points

• Gold held above $4,400 an ounce into Thursday’s close, just under the $4,495 multi-week peak reached in futures trading on 11 August, as hopes for eased Strait of Hormuz tensions ebbed and flowed. ^[3,11]
• Oil stayed volatile: Brent and WTI fell more than 7% the previous week on early optimism, then jumped roughly 5% on Monday after an arrangement failed to materialise. ^[1,2]
• US CPI cooled to 3.4% year-on-year in July, but a softer Producer Price Index and a higher-than-expected jobless claims print on Thursday pulled the US Dollar Index back below the 100.00 level it had spent four sessions climbing toward. ^[4,6]
• Workday shares closed 13 August up 17.78% at $206.45 after a Reuters report that Silver Lake is in buyout talks, lifting its market value by a little over $8 billion in a single session. ^[7,8]

What moved markets this week

The Dollar, Gold, and Oil Are Still Trading Hormuz Headlines

The week’s biggest macro story was still the effort to restore normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and the oil price news that came with it. Brent and WTI both fell more than 7% the week before this one on early hopes that Washington and Tehran were close to an arrangement, only to jump around 5% on Monday after Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US naval blockade needed to lift first. ^[1]

Jefferies economist Modupe Adegbembo cautioned that market moves would not stay this contained if the deadlock ran into the following week, and oil spent the rest of the week grinding sideways, with WTI closing at $82.11 on Thursday, down 1.39% on the day. ^[2] Strait of Hormuz oil prices remain the single variable every other market in this recap is reacting to, directly or otherwise.

Gold’s path was steadier than the headlines suggested, and if you’re only checking the gold price today, here’s the fuller picture. Comex December futures touched $4,495 an ounce intraday on 11 August, the highest level since mid-June, before settling at $4,440; spot gold traded near $4,395 that same session. ^[3]

Gold then held above $4,400 into Thursday’s close, as steady inflation data eased pressure on the Fed and a pullback in oil added support. ^[11] Saxo Bank’s Ole Hansen flagged the $4,360 to $4,370 area as the level gold needs to hold to keep the recovery intact, adding that a break above the 200-day moving average would still be needed before longer-term buyers commit more capital. ^[3]

The US Dollar Index added its own twist this week, and it’s worth understanding if you’re trying to make sense of this week’s stock market news today or any FX pair tied to it. July CPI cooled to 3.4% year-on-year, in line with expectations, and the index built a four-session winning streak toward the 100.00 mark as oil-driven inflation concerns kept some Fed hike pricing alive. ^[4,5] That reversed on Thursday: a softer Producer Price Index reading and a higher-than-expected weekly jobless claims number trimmed expectations for further tightening, pulling the dollar index back under 100.00 even as Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack repeated her preference for a rate increase. ^[6]

That split between hawkish Fed commentary and softening data lines up with the divided committee traders have been watching since the spring, and it’s exactly the kind of tug-of-war that keeps USD pairs choppy heading into next week.

Earnings Season Still Has Teeth, and Workday Stole the Show

If you only read one section for this week’s stock market news today, make it this one. The headline event was Workday: shares surged 17.78% to close at $206.45 on Thursday after Reuters reported Silver Lake has been in buyout talks with the human-resources software firm for several months, a move that briefly halted trading multiple times and lifted its market value by a little over $8 billion. ^[7]

No offer price has been confirmed, and the talks may not result in a deal. ^[7,8] It’s the sort of single-session move that reminds traders why individual share CFDs carry event risk that sits apart from the broader macro story.

Elsewhere, this week’s coverage worked through:

• Amazon, following AWS’s post-earnings acceleration and the stock’s pullback from its highs.
• Meta Platforms, after a Q3 revenue guidance range that landed below some analyst estimates alongside continued AI infrastructure spending.
• Tesla, as the stock extended its rebound off 2026 lows amid robotaxi expansion headlines.
• Micron, Applied Materials, and Nvidia, all trading against a semiconductor sector still digesting AI capital-spending questions and Nvidia’s financing plans ahead of its 26 August earnings date.
• Coca-Cola, Cloudflare, and Dell, covered around earnings reactions, a convertible note offering, and AI-server revenue trends respectively.

None of these moves happened in isolation. A market pricing both an oil-driven inflation risk and a softer growth backdrop tends to react more sharply to single-stock catalysts than usual, and this week’s volatility across mega-cap tech and smaller names reflected that.

Prices and levels this week

Here’s the gold price today alongside the rest of the week’s reference levels, all in one place so you’re not hunting across five different charts. These are reference levels only, not trade signals.

Instrument	Latest Print	What’s Happening
USDX (DXY)	99.87 (13 Aug close)	Four-session climb toward 100.00 stalled on soft PPI and a higher jobless claims print[4,6]
XAUUSD (Gold)	Above $4,400 (13 Aug)	Just under the $4,495 futures peak from 11 August; $4,360-4,370 flagged as the level to hold[3,11]
UKOUSD (Brent)	~$84-85	Down over 7% the prior week, then +5% Monday on the stalled talks[1,2]
USOUSD (WTI)	$82.11 (13 Aug)	-1.39% on the day[2]
WDAY	$206.45 (13 Aug close), +17.78%	Multiple volatility halts on the Silver Lake buyout report[7,8]

Table 1: Weekly reference prices and levels as of the 13 August 2026 close. Sources: CNBC, Trading Economics, Reuters, SiliconANGLE. Indicative only.

The week ahead economic calendar (18-22 August 2026)

The week ahead economic calendar shifts away from inflation prints and toward housing data, Fed communication, and a major central-banking event. ^[9,10]

• Tuesday, 18 August: NAHB Housing Market Index, the first housing read of the week. ^[9]
• Wednesday, 19 August: Building Permits, Housing Starts, and the weekly API crude oil inventory report. ^[9]
• Thursday, 20 August: FOMC Minutes from the July meeting, alongside the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications and EIA crude inventory data, the fullest look yet at how the committee weighed this year’s dissents. ^[9]
• Friday, 21 August: The Jackson Hole Symposium opens, alongside weekly jobless claims, the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, flash S&P Global PMIs, Existing Home Sales, and the Conference Board Leading Index. ^[9]
• Saturday, 22 August: The Jackson Hole Symposium continues. Further out, Nvidia’s 26 August earnings date is already on the desk’s radar as the next test of AI-spending sentiment. ^[9,12]

None of this week’s data, or next week’s calendar, changes the underlying setup: a Federal Reserve caught between an oil-driven inflation risk and a softening growth picture, and a market still pricing Strait of Hormuz oil prices headline by headline rather than resolution by resolution.

For traders holding positions across gold, oil, and USD pairs, this week was a reminder that headline-driven moves can happen outside normal session hours. Stop Loss placement around the ranges highlighted above does not guarantee an exact fill in fast-moving conditions, and reviewing combined exposure across correlated instruments such as gold, oil-linked FX pairs, and the US Dollar Index is worth doing before next week’s data run.

Leverage remains a double-edged tool in this kind of environment. It can magnify a loss as easily as a gain, particularly around scheduled events such as the FOMC Minutes and the Jackson Hole Symposium. Position sizing relative to account equity is worth revisiting ahead of a data-heavy week.

RISK WARNING: CFDs are complex financial instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should ensure you fully understand the risks involved and carefully consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money before trading.

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References

[1] “Oil prices climb as Iranian demands cloud outlook for Strait of Hormuz – Al Jazeera” https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/10/oil-prices-climb-as-iranian-demands-cloud-outlook-for-strait-of-hormuz Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[2] “Hormuz deadlock: Where oil prices could head next as prospects for an imminent deal fade – CNBC” https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/11/hormuz-oil-prices-us-iran.html Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[3] “Gold hits two-month peak on Hormuz deal signals before oil rally – Mining Reporters” https://www.miningreporters.com/noticia/news/2026/08/gold-price-two-month-high-hormuz-tensions-ease Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[4] “United States Dollar – Quote, Chart, Historical Data and News – Trading Economics” https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/currency Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[5] “US Dollar Index Price Forecast: DXY bulls await trading range breakout above 100.00 – FXStreet” https://www.fxstreet.com/news/us-dollar-index-price-forecast-dxy-bulls-await-trading-range-breakout-above-10000-202608130745 Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[6] “Forex Today: US Dollar holds steady ahead of US Retail Sales – FXStreet” https://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-today-us-dollar-holds-steady-ahead-of-us-retail-sales-202608132001 Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[7] “Exclusive-Silver Lake in talks to buy Workday, sources say – Reuters via Yahoo Finance” https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/exclusive-silver-lake-talks-buy-183537331.html Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[8] “Workday’s stock jumps 17% on report of Silver Lake buyout discussions – SiliconANGLE” https://siliconangle.com/2026/08/13/workdays-stock-jumps-17-report-silver-lake-buyout-discussions/ Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[9] “Forecasting the upcoming week: Focus shifts to the FOMC Minutes and the Jackson Hole Symposium – FXStreet” https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/forecasting-the-upcoming-week-focus-shifts-to-the-fomc-minutes-and-the-jackson-hole-symposium-202508151843 Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[10] “CPI, PPI, and FOMC minutes headline a two-week data window – Kraken Blog” https://blog.kraken.com/economic-brief/august-12-2026 Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[11] “Gold – Price, Chart, Historical Data and News – Trading Economics” https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/gold Accessed on 14 August 2026.

[12] “Nvidia schedules Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings call for August 26 – Investing.com” https://www.investing.com/news/assorted/nvidia-schedules-q2-fiscal-2027-earnings-call-for-august-26-432SI-4821803 Accessed on 14 August 2026.