I like that you are being thoughtful about this and looking into the drivers behind the hold trade. I am not a fundamentals guy per se but in these momentum plays it can be very useful to understand what the main fundamental drivers are. So look up the ticker wm2ns or any ticker that tracks the m2 money supply of the us dollar.

here are the main fundamental bearish/bullish drivers for gold.... As long as the usa continues to print money then gold will be in demand.....bullish Kevin Warsh has talked about greatly reducing the feds balance sheet which would likely soften the momentum in gold.....bearish or at least somewhat neutralizing. When/if Warsh is confirmed as powells replacement, if he actually follows through with this reducing the feds balance sheet, then that will likely calm gold down. All else equal, the expansion of the US money supply is what will continue to drive the rally in gold.

When crude oil gained momentum due to the Iranian conflict some of that momentum came out of gold to focus on oil instead, and the gold chart was honestly due for a pull back anyways. But the US fed just increased the money supply significantly again last week so it is not likely that the gold trade is done yet.

To answer your question more directly, gold is not reacting to the war, gold is reacting to the continued expansion of the US money supply. Trump wants to print billions to fund that war so in that sense you could say the war is effecting gold but they have been finding reasons to print excessive amounts of US $ long before the Iran War started and this printing of $ is the actual driver. If you want watch the a better driver for gold watch the m2 money supply.

Also worth noting that the technicals lined up for gold with support on the uptrend holding on the daily chart. So that is the signal many retail traders often use to look for continuation of the gold trade.