Gold scales new high as investors lose faith in US assets

Markets anticipate the Fed will deliver two quarter-percentage point rate cuts in the latter half of 2026, raising non-yielding gold’s appeal

Gold notched another record high on Friday, while silver and platinum also extended gains to hit all-time peaks, powered by diminishing confidence in US assets on account of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.

Spot gold XAU= was up 0.3 per cent at $4,951.91 per ounce, as of 0358 GMT, after scaling a record $4,966.59 earlier in the day.

US gold futures GCcv1 for February delivery added 0.8 per cent to $4,952.80 per ounce.

“Faith in the US and its assets have been shaken, maybe permanently, and this is driving money into precious metals. So the word rupture has been thrown around. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” said Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com.

The dollar index DXY hovered near a more than two-week low on Friday, having fallen 1 per cent in the course of the week, making greenback-priced metals cheaper for overseas buyers, while Wall Street’s main indexes saw a sharp sell-off earlier in the week as investors were spooked by fresh tariff threats from Trump on the EU, before recovering.

EU leaders heaved a sigh of relief over US President Donald Trump’s U-turn on Greenland as they met for an emergency summit in Brussels late on Thursday while issuing a warning that they were ready to act if Trump threatens them again.

The US president for his part said he had secured total and permanent US access to Greenland in a deal with NATO.

The details of any agreement remain unclear and Denmark insisted its sovereignty over the island isn’t up for discussion.

Spot silver XAG= surged 2.6 per cent to $98.71 an ounce, after hitting a record high of $99.20 earlier.

“The underlying story to silver is one about the outperformance of silver versus gold and its industrial applications,” Rodda added.

Markets anticipate the Fed will deliver two quarter-percentage point rate cuts in the latter half of 2026, raising non-yielding gold’s appeal.

Spot platinum XPT= gained 0.4 per cent to $2,639.40 per ounce after hitting a record $2,684.43 earlier, while palladium lost 0.9 per cent to $1,903.10.