Gold rose for a fifth day — nearing a fresh record — with doubts about the valuations of technology stocks and the outlook for US borrowing costs at the forefront of investors’ minds.
Bullion climbed as much as 1.2%, and is in its longest winning streak since the run-up to an all-time high in October. On Friday, gold and silver suffered a sudden pullback from the day’s highs in a broad risk-off move as Wall Street traders took profits on the year’s biggest artificial intelligence winners. Gold is sometimes seen as a way to hedge against downside in equities, although the metal’s short-term correlation to stocks has risen in recent months.
Forecasts for bullion prices will also be shaped by expectations of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts next year. Weak US non-farm payroll numbers on Tuesday would raise the prospect of more reductions, a tailwind for non-yielding gold.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday, President Donald Trump called for aggressively lowering rates and said he expects the next Fed chair to consult with him on monetary policy. He named Kevin Hassett and Kevin Warsh as his top choices to succeed Jerome Powell.
Gold has surged about 65% this year and silver has more than doubled, with both metals on track for their best annual performances since 1979. Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded funds have risen every month this year except May, according to the World Gold Council.
“We still expect continued central-bank buying, alongside private investor flows under Fed easing, to lift gold prices to $4,900 by end-2026,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Lina Thomas said in a note. Elevated accumulation by central banks was “a multiyear trend,” they said, reiterating a forecast for average monthly purchases of 70 tons in 2026.
Bullion faces a year of two halves in 2026, peaking near $4,800 before the end of the second quarter before retreating, ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. analysts Soni Kumari and Daniel Hynes said in a note. They also cited “resilient” investment flows and central-bank buying as supportive factors.
Silver, meanwhile, has been bolstered in recent weeks by speculative bets on lingering supply tightness after a historic squeeze in October. The white metal — which hit a record of $64.6573 an ounce on Friday — will continue to find support from a market deficit, as well as resilient industrial demand and uncertainty around US import policy, ANZ said.
The US Geological Survey added silver to its critical minerals list last month, and traders are cautious about taking silver out of America in the event that import tariffs are later imposed. The ANZ analysts said they expected silver to be excluded from tariffs, with confirmation of such a decision likely to prompt outflows of the metal and ease tightness.
Gold gained 0.9% to $4,339.22 an ounce as of 10:46 a.m. in London, nearing October’s record of $4,381.52. Silver gained 2.8% to $63.7102, recouping its losses on Friday. Platinum jumped as much as 3.2% to its highest since September 2011, and palladium also rose. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was down 0.1%.
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