Gold has stormed through the milestone of $5,000 per troy ounce in a sign of how mounting global tensions are driving investors to the haven asset in unprecedented volumes.
After a historic surge last week, when concerns over Greenland drove gold prices to their strongest week since the financial crisis, the rally continued on Monday with the metal rising 2.2 per cent and touching highs of $5,110 per troy ounce.
“We have passed another threshold, just much faster than I thought we would,” said Michael Haigh, analyst at Société Générale.
“People are price insensitive to gold now, as they expect this momentum to continue,” he added. Global “uncertainty levels are high”, he said, pointing to recent events in Venezuela, Greenland and Iran as factors that had driven investors to traditional haven assets, such as bullion.
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Gold has risen 17 per cent so far this month, putting bullion on course for its strongest month in more than 40 years.
The metal’s previous milestones have often been passed during times of global turmoil – it went above $1,000 an ounce during the 2008 financial crisis and hit $2,000 during the pandemic.
Last year, the yellow metal raced past $3,000 and $4,000, as the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency drove volatility and raised questions over the stability of the US dollar. Concerns over the independence of the US Federal Reserve, where chair Jay Powell is under criminal investigation, have also contributed to the rally.
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Investor inflows into gold-backed exchange traded funds have risen to unprecedented levels, reaching $89 billion last year, the largest annual figure on record.
Demand from central banks has been at historically high levels over the past four years, with many diversifying their holdings away from the US dollar. The pace of such buying slowed last year but gold nevertheless became the second-largest reserve asset held by central banks, behind the US dollar.
Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said gold offered investors “an option ... to diversify their exposure to monetary and fiscal policy uncertainty”.
The speed of gold’s rally has confounded even the most optimistic expectations.
“Every time someone comes up with a forecast for gold that looks aggressive, it hits [that price] within weeks,” said Tai Hui, chief Asia-Pacific market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. “The policy environment continues to point to the uncertainty of the new world order.”
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Silver and platinum prices rose 3.7 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, to record highs, while the dollar dropped 0.5 per cent against a basket of key trading partners including the pound and euro.
Analysts said rising bond yields in Japan last week, over concerns about the country’s ambitious spending plans, had added to the upward pressure on bullion prices.
“This is related to what is happening in the Japanese bond market because gold is seen as a safe haven,” said Dart.
A weakening dollar also drove renewed demand.
“Commodities and precious metals often strengthen when the dollar is weaker,” said Prashant Bhayani, chief investment officer for Asia at BNP Paribas Wealth Management.
Dollar weakness can boost gold by making it cheaper to buy in other currencies.
The dollar fell 1.1 per cent against the yen to trade around 154 to the dollar on Monday, on speculation of intervention to support the Japanese currency.
“It’s the yen move that’s helping gold and base metals,” Bhayani said. -- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
