Gold and silver prices surged early Thursday morning, with silver toppling the $120 mark and gold nearing an all-time high of $5,600, up more than $200 from just one day ago as tensions between the United States and Iran mount and the dollar weakens.
KEY FACTS
- The price of gold is about $5,535.10 as of 9:30 a.m. EST, up more than 4.3% today but slightly down from an all-time high of $5,586.20 earlier this morning.
- The price of silver is $121.10 as of 9:30 a.m., up nearly 7% today and near the record high of $121.79 the metal hit earlier in the day.
- Gold and silver have been on a significant upswing since 2025, but this has been a major week for the precious metals with gold rising $220 in price on Wednesday, its largest one-day dollar gain on record and the biggest percent gain since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic drove metals prices upward.
- Jamie Dutta, market analyst at Nemo.money, attributed this week’s surge to “U.S.-Iran geopolitical tensions, a weak dollar and market expectations of more Fed rate cuts driving prices to endless record highs,” Reuters reported.
- The dollar hit a four-year low earlier this week, while President Donald Trump said Wednesday a “massive armada” is heading toward Iran as he urged the country to “negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS.”
- Hao Hong, chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management, told Bloomberg Thursday morning gold and silver are the “ultimate safe-haven assets against extreme risk as geopolitical turbulence continues.”
CHIEF CRITICS
Some analysts told CNBC the precious metals market is “broken,” citing extreme price swings that don’t match up with supply and demand. “The movement you’re seeing in metals today is not necessarily about fundamental demand for the metal itself,” Maximilian Tomei, CEO and co-portfolio manager at Galena Asset Management, told CNBC. Demand alone does not “explain a commodity being up 200%,” Tomei said, calling the market “broken.” Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP, told CNBC she feels the metals market is “broken given unheard-of volatility,” adding metals are being “overbought on a tactical basis.”
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Whether metals will continue to rise throughout the year. Marko Kolanovic, a former chief market analyst at JPMorgan, said in a post on X earlier this week silver is “almost guaranteed to drop ~50% from these levels within a year or so,” noting the metal is prone to price swings. Deutsche Bank said Tuesday gold could surpass a record $6,000 this year amid the weakening dollar.
WHY ELSE ARE GOLD AND SILVER SURGING?
Sustained international tensions have pushed precious metals prices upward, including Trump’s push to annex Greenland, tensions with Iran and the United States’ capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. Concerns over the independence of the Federal Reserve, following Trump’s continued attacks on chair Jerome Powell and a federal investigation into whether Powell lied to Congress about Fed renovations, have also helped metals prices rise. Suki Cooper, global head of commodities research at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a note this week concerns over a less independent Fed are “likely driving more rapid allocations to gold, led by retail investors.”
Carsten Menke, Julius Baer’s head of next generation research, told the Wall Street Journal this week metal price increases are also because of “political power games President Trump is playing, both at home and abroad.” Silver has also faced increased demand because it is a crucial ingredient in technological industries, including in electric vehicle production and in AI data centers.
