Precious metals soared Monday — with gold extending its record-run past $5,100 per troy ounce and silver surging to new highs — as investors continued to load up on hard assets as a hedge against geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.
Gold was up 2.4 percent on New York’s COMEX commodities exchange in early afternoon trading after crossing the $5,000 threshold for the first time a day earlier. Silver, which tends to be more volatile, spiked 14.6 percent Monday to more than $116 per ounce, stretching out a rally that has more than tripled its value in the past year.
Analysts say the run-up in both metals reflects a broader shift away from dollar-based assets, a phenomena known as the “debasement trade.”
“This isn’t a meme rally … this is a fundamental rally in terms of the de-dollarization of the world, as central banks are protecting themselves from U.S. policy, and maybe the unpredictability of what the U.S. does,” said Bob Gottlieb, a former metals trader who worked for JPMorgan and other financial institutions.
Numerous central banks upped their gold purchases in 2022 at the onset of the war in Ukraine, and the buying accelerated in early 2025 as President Donald Trump’s trade wars disrupted global markets. Those anxieties have reignited in recent week as the Trump administration has assumed a more aggressive foreign policy stance, including the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a military operation, and threatening European leaders over U.S. demands to annex Greenland.
Over the weekend, Trump threatened Canada with a 100 percent tariff, saying it would happen “immediately” if Ottawa made a trade deal with China. But Prime Minister Mark Carney had announced the agreement a week earlier, initially drawing praise from Trump.
“The current whack-a-mole backdrop of geopolitical conflict continues to support a risk premium in gold,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.
Turnquist said metals also are being pushed higher by the sinking U.S. dollar, which fell again Monday morning to its lowest point since September. A weaker dollar means foreign currencies are stronger by comparison, boosting foreign investors’ purchases of non-dollar investments.
Silver prices have been driven higher by growing industrial uses in recent years, including solar panels and data center projects. Silver stockpiles have decreased recently on the Chicago Metals Exchange as shipments leave the U.S. for elsewhere, Gottlieb said.
Gold and silver have also seen a surge in interest from retail investors looking to profit from the run-up in prices, with gold-backed investment funds in North America adding a record of roughly $51 billion in 2025, according to the World Gold Council, a trade group.
Those funds added another $5 billion in the first few weeks of 2026, indicating the trend has continued into the new year, said Joe Cavatoni, the organization’s chief markets strategist. “What we’re seeing and hearing is that retail demand [for gold] in the U.S. is higher and going up,” he said.
Other metals have gained value, too. Copper was driven higher by a 50 percent tariff on finished products that the Trump administration imposed in July. Futures tied to platinum and palladium, both used in automotive catalytic converters and other industrial products, have both climbed than 25 percent since the start of the year.
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