Gold prices extended their record-smashing streak on Wednesday, blowing past the $5,200 mark, as investors positioned ahead of a US Federal Reserve policy decision and the dollar slid to a nearly four-year low amid persistent geopolitical anxiety.
Spot gold jumped about 1.6 percent day-on-day to $5,264.20 an ounce as of 0700 GMT, after hitting a fresh all-time high of $5,271.45 earlier in the session. Bullion prices have climbed about 9% over the week.
Gold has soared roughly 90.5 percent over the past 12 months and about 17% since the start of the year, fueled by escalating trade and geopolitical tensions and a wave of interest-rate cuts by major central banks.
Silver also posted sharp gains, rising 2.4 percent to $114.8 an ounce. Silver prices have surged more than 277.6% over the past year.
Market participants squarely blamed the rally on a weakening US dollar and intensifying geopolitical risks, after US President Donald Trump declined to acknowledge that the currency had fallen too far on Tuesday.
“I think it’s great,” Trump said of the weaker dollar. “I mean the value of the dollar, look at the business we’re doing. No, dollar is doing great. You know it’s very interesting, if you look at China or Japan, I used to fight like hell with them because they always wanted to devalue their yen … you know that, the yen and yuan, and they’d always want to devalue it. They devalue, devalue, devalue. And I said, ‘not fair.’ They devalue, because it’s hard to compete when they devalue.”
The US dollar index has dropped more than 2.7 percent over the week, with the greenback sliding to its weakest level since February 2022 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, mounting concerns over a cooling labor market and rising costs sent US consumer confidence plunging to its lowest level in more than 11 and a half years in January.
Trump also said he would soon announce his pick to lead the Fed and expects interest rates to fall once the next chair takes office.
At its ongoing January monetary policy meeting, the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.
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