Gold prices registered their fourth monthly gain while silver posted a new all-time high to finish the holiday-shortened trading week. Is the metals market on track for another meteoric ascent in 2026?
January gold futures surged $29.90, or 0.71%, to $4,232.00 per ounce at 14:52 GMT on Friday on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices will post a weekly gain of 4% and a November increase of 5.4%. Year-to-date, the yellow metal has rocketed 60%.
Silver, the sister commodity to gold, has posted an all-time high. January silver futures rallied $2.3, or 4.3%, to $55.91 per ounce. The white metal soared 12% this week and will have a November gain of 16%. Year-to-date, silver has climbed 91%.
The precious metals were firmly in the green on growing concerns about international debt and swelling economic uncertainty. They also found support for the Federal Reserve likely cutting interest rates at next month’s Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, investors are betting on an 80% chance of a quarter-point rate cut, which would be the third straight reduction by monetary policymakers.
Gold benefits from a lower rate environment because it reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
The US dollar has also been weakening, mainly because of easing policy expectations. The US Dollar Index (DXY), a measure of the greenback against a weighted basket of currencies, fell 0.05% to 99.54, from an opening of 99.57. The index is down 0.6% this week and slipped 0.3% in November. This year, the DXY has plunged 8.3%.
A weaker buck makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for foreign investors to purchase.
Silver prices spiked, possibly driven by a drop in white metal inventories in China to a 10-year low.
In other metal commodities, January copper futures soared $0.10, or 1.92%, to $5.3 per pound. January platinum futures rocketed $80.90, or 5.1%, to $1,667.10 per ounce. January palladium futures rose $37.00, or 2.53%, to $1,499.00 an ounce.