Gold jumped to a new record high above $5,000 an ounce during trading on Monday, continuing a historic rally as investors increasingly sought safe havens amid rising global geopolitical uncertainty.
Gold surged by approximately 64% in 2025, fueled by continued safe-haven demand, US monetary policy easing, and strong central bank purchases. China continued its gold buying spree for the fourteenth consecutive month in December, in addition to record inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Since the beginning of the year, prices have gained over 17%.
Political turmoil deepens the crisis of confidence and fuels the buying spree
Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said the latest catalyst is a deepening crisis of confidence in the US administration and US assets, which erupted as a result of the Trump administration’s erratic decisions over the past week.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday unexpectedly backed down from his threats to impose tariffs on European allies to pressure them over the Greenland issue.
Over the weekend, he announced he would impose 100% tariffs on Canada if it went ahead with a trade deal with China, and threatened to impose 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne in an attempt to pressure French President Emmanuel Macron to join his so-called Peace Council initiative, a move some observers believe could undermine the role of the United Nations despite Trump's assurances that the council would cooperate with the international organization.
The dollar's decline boosts gold gains and fuels expectations of further rises.
Roda added that this administration created a permanent break in the way political and economic files were managed, which led almost everyone to turn to gold as the only reliable alternative.
Meanwhile, the rise in the Japanese yen led to a broad decline in the dollar at the start of the week, amid market anticipation of possible intervention by Japanese authorities, as well as investors reducing their dollar positions ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.
The weakness of the dollar contributes to making gold, which is priced in US dollars, more attractive to holders of other currencies, thus boosting global demand for it.
Philip Newman, director of Metals Focus, expects gold's upward trend to continue, noting that current estimates suggest prices will peak near $5,500 an ounce later this year. He added that periodic pullbacks may occur due to profit-taking, but these will be short-lived and likely to be countered by strong buying.
Gold at settlement on Friday
Gold prices rose at the close of trading on Friday, amid increased demand for the precious metal as a safe haven due to geopolitical tensions, along with expectations of interest rate cuts in the United States this year.
Gold futures for February delivery rose 1.35%, or $66.30, to $4,979.70 an ounce, marking their sixth record close in 2026 and posting a weekly gain of 8.4%, the highest since the start of the pandemic crisis in 2020.
Gold now
The spot price of gold rose by 1.98% to $5,081.18 an ounce, after earlier touching a level of $5,093.
US gold futures for February delivery also rose by 2.01% to $5,079.30 an ounce.
Silver, platinum, and palladium join the ranks of record-breaking metals.
Spot silver rose 5.79% to $108.91 an ounce after hitting a record high of $109.44, while platinum climbed 3.77% to $2,871.40 an ounce after reaching an all-time high of $2,891.60 earlier in the session. Palladium also rose 3.2% to $2,075.30 an ounce, its highest level in more than three years.
Silver broke above $100 an ounce for the first time last Friday, continuing a strong upward trend after jumping 147% over the past year, driven by retail investor flows and momentum-based buying, at a time when the market is suffering from a long-term shortage of physical supply of the metal.
