Brent crude climbed to roughly $78.60–$79.25 a barrel on July 9, 2026, up more than a dollar on the day and about $8.30 higher than a year ago, as renewed military tension in the Gulf fanned fears of a wider supply disruption. Oil’s jump matters for jewellery buyers in a way that’s easy to overlook: higher energy costs feed directly into refining, transport, and manufacturing expenses across the gold supply chain, which historically shows up a few weeks later in making charges rather than in the metal price itself.

Meanwhile gold, ironically, has not followed oil higher — spot prices sat around $4,075–$4,115/oz today, still pressured by a strong dollar and uncertainty from the Federal Reserve’s new leadership, whose committee remains split on further rate hikes. That combination — flat-to-soft gold metal prices alongside rising input costs — is exactly the kind of window where the finished price of a piece of jewellery can still be attractive even if raw gold ticks up later.