Global Gold at a Three-Month High as the Dollar Sits Near a Multi-Month Low; Market Pulse, Friday Morning, Aug 28, 2026; Tehran's Bourse Closed With Its Record 6,386,000-Point Week

1. Lead

The Tehran Stock Exchange and Iran Mercantile Exchange are closed today, Friday, 6 Shahrivar 1405 (August 28, 2026), under their weekly calendar, but the parallel markets have not stopped moving. Global gold, which touched $4,695.68 on Monday, 2 Shahrivar, its highest level in more than three months, is trading this morning down 0.49 percent at $4,580.42. At the same time, per Ecoiran, the US dollar has drifted toward a multi-month low and bitcoin is holding in the $80,000 range, a pattern analysts are calling the "debasement trade." This global current follows a record-breaking week at home: Tehran's TEDPIX index jumped 2.61 percent on Wednesday to an all-time record of 6,386,577 points and closed the week up nearly 5.4 percent, the same days in which the free-market dollar climbed to a weekly peak of 203,000 tomans under fresh US sanctions pressure before the Central Bank pushed it back to a 200,000 to 202,000 toman range.

2. Today's Snapshot

3. Today's Top Headlines

• Global gold touched $4,696 on Monday, its highest in more than three months, and trades near $4,580 today; per Ecoiran, the dollar has neared a multi-month low and bitcoin is holding around $80,000, a pattern analysts call the "debasement trade" (Ecoiran, Friday morning, Aug 28).
• Central Bank deputy governor Vahid Majed said monthly inflation for Mordad eased to 3.7 percent from a peak of 8.5 percent in Ordibehesht; meanwhile the inflation gap between income deciles reached 10.7 percentage points in Mordad, with point-to-point inflation still at 89 percent (Donya-e-Eqtesad, Thursday and Friday).
• China said it would safeguard its own interests in response to expanded US sanctions on Iran, while Trump told Al Jazeera he is in no hurry for Iran to return to the negotiating table (Al Jazeera, Thursday and Friday).
• Per Bloomberg, Qatari and Kuwaiti oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, using ship-to-ship transfers, have reached about 70 percent of pre-war levels, and Iraq's state oil marketer SOMO held its second Basrah crude auction of the week for cargoes routed outside Hormuz (Bloomberg and Zawya, this week).
• Goldman Sachs said Persian Gulf oil exports have recovered to about two-thirds of pre-war levels, and Iran and Oman have reached a revenue-sharing agreement over the Strait of Hormuz, without guaranteeing its immediate reopening (TradingEconomics, Friday, Aug 28).

4. Currency

In the free market, per Sahmino's own price board, the dollar closed Wednesday evening, Aug 26, at 200,600 tomans (up 0.05 percent). Donya-e-Eqtesad, in a separate report for Thursday, Aug 27, put the free-market dollar at 201,960 tomans, close to Sahmino's figure. Reviewing the full trading week (Saturday through Wednesday), the free-market dollar climbed to a weekly peak of about 203,000 tomans on Monday, 2 Shahrivar, the same day US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched a fresh sanctions package dubbed Iran's "economic day of reckoning," then retreated to the 200,000 to 202,000 toman range once the Central Bank began supplying dollar banknotes to the market from Tuesday. The agreed rate (the official rate quoted through Iran's Currency and Gold Exchange Center, known as tavafoghi) stood, per Sahmino's board for Thursday, Aug 27, at 158,039 tomans (sell) and 156,616 tomans (buy); the gap with the free-market rate is roughly 42,000 to 44,000 tomans, about 21 to 22 percent. The euro eased 0.12 percent Wednesday evening to 233,700 tomans, while the UAE dirham rose 0.04 percent to 54,638 tomans. In global markets, the dollar stayed under the same "debasement trade" pressure described below: EUR/USD was at 1.1644 (down 0.05 percent), GBP/USD at 1.3587 (down 0.04 percent) and USD/CHF at 0.8048 (up 0.07 percent) today; the dollar strengthened 0.21 percent against the Turkish lira to 48.24. For live dollar rates, see Sahmino's dollar price page.

5. Gold and Coin

Our own data shows the global gold ounce reached $4,695.68 on Monday, 2 Shahrivar, its highest level recorded since late Ordibehesht, over three months. This Friday morning it is trading down 0.49 percent (22.44 dollars) at $4,580.42. Ecoiran reported this morning that global gold hit "its highest level in more than three months" while the US dollar approached "its lowest range in several months," attributing the joint move in gold, commodities and bitcoin to concerns over elevated long-term US Treasury yields and an increase in Washington's bond buyback operations, a pattern known in financial literature as the "debasement trade." Per tgju.org, Tehran's 18-karat gold price has risen 3.37 percent from last week (Saturday, Aug 22) and 20.93 percent from three months ago (June 30). On Sahmino's board, 18-karat gold stood at 21,746,400 tomans per gram Wednesday evening (up 0.32 percent daily) and the Emami coin at 216,010,000 tomans (essentially flat). With Tehran's gold and coin exchanges closed today, the main action in this market will run through the global ounce and the dollar rate; see Sahmino's global gold ounce page for the live chart.

6. Bourse and Farabourse

The Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse are closed today (Friday) and yesterday (Thursday) under the weekly trading calendar. In the week's final session, Wednesday, Aug 26, TEDPIX rose 162,698 points (2.61 percent) to an all-time record of 6,386,577; trade value that day reached nearly 328 trillion tomans (328 hemt) across 699,897 trades (Sahmino data, recorded at 13:24). Per Ecoiran, individual investors brought in nearly 4.8 trillion tomans (4.8 hemt) of fresh money that day, and 93 percent of listed symbols closed higher. The Farabourse index rose 969 points (1.95 percent) to 50,679.5. Reviewing the full trading week (Saturday, Aug 22 through Wednesday, Aug 26), TEDPIX climbed from Saturday's close of 6,061,547 by nearly 5.4 percent to Wednesday's record, while the Farabourse index rose from 48,708.4 by nearly 4 percent; per Boursenews, Iran's total stock market capitalization surpassed 21,000 trillion tomans (21,000 hemt) for the first time on Wednesday, with all 40 listed industry groups posting gains. The Farabourse Base Market, which sits inside the same Farabourse index and trades under wider bands and thinner liquidity, has no separate figure in this report. Both exchanges reopen Saturday, Sep 5 (7 Shahrivar).

7. Crypto

Bitcoin is down 0.19 percent (153.97 dollars) this morning at $79,862, after closing out last week with a strong rebound from last month's pullback. Ethereum is down 0.48 percent at $2,490.7. Tether against the toman stood at 200,327 tomans this morning, nearly unchanged from yesterday. US spot bitcoin ETFs have logged a seventh straight day of inflows, taking August's total to $3.03 billion (SoSoValue data via Cointelegraph); that same flow of liquidity, alongside gold and commodities, is part of the same "debasement trade" described in the gold section above.

8. Iron and Steel

The commodity exchange and the factory-gate steel market are closed today and yesterday; the last settlement data, from Wednesday's session on the Iran Mercantile Exchange, still stands: rebar A3, size 14 to 20, at 743,837 rials per kilogram, and size 22 to 32 at 762,031 rials per kilogram. At the factory gate, Aryan Foolad's size-10 A3 rebar priced at 75,450 tomans on Wednesday and its size-14 grade at 74,090 tomans, essentially unchanged from prior days. In the global market, which is not closed, Shanghai rebar rose 0.61 percent (19 yuan) this morning to 3,123 yuan per ton. The exchange rate and furnace energy costs remain the main drivers of domestic prices heading into next week.

9. Vehicles

Tehran's free car market entered a correction yesterday (Thursday) after several days of sharp gains; per Donya-e-Eqtesad, a simultaneous pullback in the dollar and gold rates cooled buying momentum. The automatic Dena Plus fell 90 million tomans to 2.96 billion tomans; the automatic turbo Tara dropped 60 million tomans and the automatic Shahin Plus 55 million tomans. Among economy models, the dual-fuel Saina fell 20 million tomans to 1.47 billion tomans and the base Quick S fell 10 million tomans to 1.255 billion tomans. Among assembled imports, the Lucano L8 posted the largest drop, down 400 million tomans to 9.9 billion tomans. Per Donya-e-Eqtesad, the pullback has not yet offset recent gains, and whether it continues depends on the dollar's path ahead; today, Friday, the car market is quiet with no broad official trading.

10. Building Materials

The cement market is closed today and yesterday, like steel. The last commodity-exchange settlement, from Wednesday: Type 2 (42.5) bulk cement at 26,968 rials and the 50-kilogram bag at 38,845 rials per kilogram; Type 5 (42.5) bulk at 28,387 rials per kilogram. At retail, a 50-kilogram bag of Abyk Type 2 cement is priced near 289,000 tomans and Tehran Cement near 291,000 tomans; the gap between exchange and retail rates remains notable. Shares of the cement funds (Simana, Simano, Simania) rose between 0.55 and 1.53 percent in Wednesday's session, in line with the broader market.

11. Regional and Global Outlook

In the United States, the S&P 500 rose 0.72 percent (55.29 points) overnight to 7,730.99, driven mainly by strong earnings: Nvidia's fiscal second-quarter revenue hit $96.2 billion (up 106 percent year over year) with a raised outlook for the next quarter, while Salesforce, CrowdStrike and Okta all beat market estimates. At the same time, the Trump administration's legal fight with Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over rejected mortgage-fraud allegations continues; its path matters for Trump's push for faster rate cuts, and from there for the dollar and global gold. Brent crude stood at $88.19 this morning per TradingEconomics (down 0.37 percent) and at $89.20 per Oilprice.com. TradingEconomics, citing Goldman Sachs, reported that Persian Gulf oil exports have recovered to about two-thirds of pre-war levels (15 to 16 million barrels a day), still 7 to 8 million barrels below pre-conflict levels, and that Iran and Oman have reached a revenue-sharing deal over the Strait of Hormuz, without guaranteeing its immediate reopening. Per Bloomberg, Qatari and Kuwaiti oil exports through Hormuz, using ship-to-ship transfers, have reached about 70 percent of pre-war levels, and Iraq's SOMO held its second Basrah crude auction of the week for cargoes routed outside Hormuz. China's imports of Iranian oil, per Kpler data reported by The National and The Guardian, averaged about 534,000 barrels a day in July and August, 48 percent below pre-war levels. The dollar strengthened 0.21 percent against the Turkish lira this morning to 48.24; the Chinese yuan (6.72) and the Russian ruble showed no notable move.

12. Bottom Line

Today, Friday, 6 Shahrivar, belonged to global gold and the dollar, not to Iran's domestic markets: the Tehran Stock Exchange and commodity exchange are closed, but the same force that drove TEDPIX to a record 6,386,000 points last week while pushing the free-market dollar to 203,000 tomans is visible again today in the shape of a global "debasement trade," gold near a three-month high, the US dollar near a multi-month low, and bitcoin holding near $80,000. What to remember: this week of parallel records is not over; today it is simply global markets, not Tehran's exchange floor, carrying it.

13. What to Watch Today

• Saturday, 7 Shahrivar (Sep 5): the Tehran Stock Exchange and commodity exchange reopen after a record-breaking week; will the momentum continue or is a correction due?
• Whether the Central Bank continues its dollar-banknote supply operation, and its effect on the 200,000 to 202,000 toman free-market range.
• The outcome of Qatar's prime minister's mediation visit to Tehran, after the White House said no talks with Iran are underway or planned.
• The path of Lisa Cook's legal fight at the Federal Reserve, one of the variables affecting the US interest-rate path and global gold.
• The Central Bank's final Mordad inflation data, following the preliminary 3.7 percent monthly figure and the 10.7-point gap in inflation across income deciles.

For a full recap of Tehran's record-breaking week, see yesterday's Market Pulse, and follow Sahmino's market calendar for the week ahead's economic events.