Gold prices rose to yet another record high Monday, extending a yearslong rally for the precious metal accelerated in recent weeks as President Donald Trump’s tariffs upend global trade policy, and investors and central banks search for safety in the evolving global economy.
Gold is on a remarkable hot streak.
Spot gold rose to as high as $2,938 per troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising as much as 1.7%.
Monday’s rally tied to Trump’s imposition of a blanket 25% tariff on all aluminum and tariff imports, the latest in a scorching stretch for gold.
Up 44% over the last year, gold has been by far the best-performer across a basket of 12 leading global asset classes over the period, according to the BlackRock Investment Institute, most notably trouncing the 22% return for the S&P 500 over the last year, including reinvested dividends.
And Wall Street largely believes the gains will continue: JPMorgan Chase maintains a $2.950 end-of-2025 price target for gold, Goldman Sachs holds a $3,000 target by the middle of 2026 and Citigroup has a $3,000 target by the end of this year.
Gold breaking $3,000, which would only require a less than 3% rally from Monday’s prices, would be the latest milestone for a roaring 2020s for gold, which only crossed $1,000 for the first time during 2008’s great financial crisis and $2,000 for the first time during 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s rare for gold to have such a strong performance during a time of economic strength globally, especially in the U.S., which has many of the hallmarks of an economy far from recession with a resilient labor market, stock market highs and relatively stable inflation. Though long-held concerns about inflation and geopolitical tensions such as the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and diminished interest rate cut prospects weigh on the minds of gold investors, experts mostly tie the recent gold rally to Trump’s tariffs. Gold “clearly would benefit from universal tariffs,” according to JPMorgan’s head of cross asset strategy Fabio Bassi, while Goldman commodities strategist Lina Thomas wrote of gold’s “potentially persistent boost from elevated US policy uncertainty.” And there’s a continued undercurrent of historic gold purchasing from central banks globally, as those institutions bought more than 1,000 tonnes of gold in 2024, the third consecutive year of at least 1,000 tonnes in central bank purchases after never crossing that mark prior to 2022, according to the World Gold Council. The People's Bank of China is the most notable buyer, accounting for 43% of all central bank gold purchases in November, according to Goldman. Central banks typically buy gold to safeguard against inflation or other deterioration of their home currencies.
Gold has unexpectedly become one of the hottest financial assets on the market despite being one of the oldest investments in human history. Gold and other commodities do not offer the same potential for dividends or other returned shareholder value like stocks or guaranteed annual interest payments like bonds, making the metal’s rise more stark.
Gold and bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency thought by some to be a new-school hedge against economic uncertainty, have gone on divergent paths since Trump announced the 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods and a 10% additional tariffs on Chinese imports (the Canadian and Mexican levies were later delayed). Gold prices are up 2% since Trump signed the tariff executive order Feb. 1, while bitcoin is down 6%.