Remember Panic Room? In the thriller by David Fincher (2002), a woman locks herself in her house's secure panic room, together with her daughter, to escape from a burglary attempt. For investors, in the event that panic grips the financial markets, the same concept exists: It's called gold.

With each crisis, the yellow metal's value reaches new heights: Thanks to American President Donald Trump, it has scaled several. On Tuesday, April 22, an ounce of gold (31 grams, known as a "troy ounce") briefly rose to the historic $3,500 mark. Indeed, the $3,000 threshold was only first reached on March 14, highlighting the power of the current upward price trend. For the record, the $2,000 mark was reached for the first time in August 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the $1,000 threshold remains a fond memory, hearkening back to the subprime crisis in March 2008.

Buyers are rushing to acquire gold in order to escape the turbulence generated on the markets by the trade war the American president started, followed by his attacks on Jerome Powell, the chairman of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed), whom he does not consider quick enough to lower rates. Even though Trump stated, in the evening on Tuesday, April 22, that he had no intention of firing Powell, there is no way to be sure that investors will soon venture out of their panic rooms. Especially since the other major safe haven asset, US Treasury bonds, no longer seem so secure when the American president doesn't hesitate to threaten the Fed's independence.

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